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THE 



Physical Life of Woman 



ADVICE TO THE 



MAIDEN, WIFE, AND MOTHER. 



BY 

GEORGE H. NAPHEYS, A.M.,M.D., 

MEMBER OF THB PHILADELPHIA COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY; CORRESPONDING 
MEMBER OF THE GYNECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BOSTON J LATE CHIEF OF 
MEDICAL CLINIC OF THE JEFFERSON MEDICAL COLLEGE J AUTHOR 
OF "THE TRANSMISSION OF LIFE j" "THE PREVENTION AND 
CURE OF DISEASE ;" "MODERN MEDICAL THERA- 
PEUTICS j" "LETTERS FROM EUROPE," 
ETC, ETC. ETC. 



Je veux qu'une femme ait des clartes de tout." 

Afoliere. 



NEW STEREOTYPE EDITION, 
ENTIRELY REWRITTEN, ENLARGED, AND REVISED. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
J. G. FERGUS & CO., 155 NORTH NINTH STREET. 

HANNAFORD & CO., CINCINNATI, OHIO, AND CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. 
B. F. RIDAY & CO., BOSTON, MASS. 

1873. 






Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1873, by 

J. a. FERGUS & CO., 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at "Washington. 
All rights reserved. 



COLLINS, PRINTER. 



PUBLISHERS' NOTICE. 



The extraordinary popularity achieved and maintained by Dr. 
Geo. H. Napiieys' Physical Life of Woman, places it beyond ques- 
tion among the classics of the English language. Convinced of 
its high literary as well as medical value, the present publishers 
have spared no pains or expense to place it before the public in 
the most attractive style. 

The text has been most carefully revised and rewritten by the 
eminent author himself; extensive additions of important matter, 
the fruit of three more years devoted to the study of the subject 
and the wants of readers, have been incorporated. In type, paper, 
and binding, the most appropriate materials have been selected. 
And, to satisfy the repeated requests of purchasers, permission 
has been obtained from the author to insert his portrait, engraved 
on steel by one of the most skilful London artists. 

With these additions, the Physical Life of Woman comes before 
the public with all the novelty and freshness of a new book, and 
also with the solid and substantial reputation for practical worth 
which its sales of nearly fifty thousand copies a year for three years 
guarantee to it. 

SYNOPSIS OF THE BOOK. 

It treats of woman in her three great positions in life, as the 
Maiden, the Wife, and the Mother. 

Under the first of these is discussed the mysterious change she 
undergoes when ripening from the indifferent girl to the tender 
And sensitive virgin. The dangers she runs at this critical epoch 
are carefully noted, and the rules to prevent and remedy them 
clearly set forth. The all-absorbing topic of Love is next treated 

(i) 



ii publishers' notice. 

of in a pure and elevated style, but strictly from the physician's 
point of view, and many salutary hints are given to direct the 
passion to noble ends and in proper channels, and to teach the 
youthful reader how to shun unfortunate unions. 

In the part addressed to Wives the health of the married couple 
is first considered as being essential to their happiness. Plainly, 
yet delicately, the rules that«should govern them are laid down; 
the absence of children and their excessive numbers are both 
mentioned, as requiring appropriate correction, and an unsparing 
hand is laid upon certain prevalent social vices. A full discus- 
sion of the important topic of the inheritance of physical and 
mental traits will be found, and two most thorough and practical 
chapters on Pregnancy and Confinement are added, most invalua- 
ble to every young wife. 

The duties of the Mother are next set forth, in nursing her 
child, and taking proper care of it, in training its budding powers, 
and also in giving her own attention to it in some of the more 
common diseases to which children are subject. 

The sections devoted to Health in Marriage will be peculiarly 
welcome to many women suffering in health from they know not 
what exact cause, bat really from some of those inward or local 
weaknesses which are here described. While to very many others 
who are approaching or about passing through the critical epoch 
of the Change of Life, the full and well-considered views of the 
author in the part devoted to that period will be read with benefit 
and gratitude. 

A carefully prepared Index and a copious list of authorities 
close the volume. 



W^*i 









PREFACE 



TO THE 



SECOND STEREOTYPE EDITION. 



Three years have passed since the author of the 
present work ventured to lay it before the public, not 
without unusual anxiety as to the manner in which he 
had fulfilled a task he knew to be so fruitful of good 
results if well done. Those years of trial are over, and 
they have brought a recognition of his labors beyond 
his most sanguine dreams. Nearly one hundred and 
fifty thousand copies of the work have been sold in 
that period ; it has been separately republished both in 
Canada and England ; it has been honored by a trans- 
lation into German ; the imitations of it which have 
been written form almost a small library; and, more 
to the satisfaction of the author than ail this, it has 
received the highest ' praise both at home and abroad, 
from both the medical profession and the general 
•learned world. 

The present new stereotype edition contains the result 
of three more years of study and experience, en- 
lightened and aided by very many letters from readers, 

which served to point out wherein the previous edition 
i* (v) 



vi PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 

fell short of their wants. The text has been carefully- 
revised, and in large part wholly rewritten ; nearly one 
hundred and fifty pages of selected new matter have 
been added ; and the latest steps of medical science in 
this direction have been followed. 

Of the parts which are quite new, and which from 
the inquiries of numerous readers will add greatly to 
the value of the work, are the sections on the disturb- 
ances of the, monthly function in girls, the care of the 
child, the management of diseases of children, the dis- 
eases incident to pregnancy, childbed, and nursing, etc. 

Indeed, in the present edition the author has aimed 
to omit nothing which can aid Woman in perfoming 
her full duty to herself and others, so far as that duty 
lies in the sphere of her Physical Life, whether she is 
called upon to act as Wife, Mother, Teacher, or Guide. 
His most ardent desire continues to be that the work 
will be found a sure and safe monitor amid the difficult 
duties of Maidenhood and Maternity. 

London, England, October, 1872. 



PREFACE 



TO THE 



FIRST EDITION 



It seems well to offer, at the outset, a few words 
explanatory of the nature and object of this book. 
The author fells that its aim is novel, is daring, and 
will perhaps subject him to criticism. He therefore 
make his plea, pro domo sua, in advance. 

The researches of scientific men within the last few 
years have brought to light very many facts relating to 
the physiology of woman, the diseases to which she is 
subject, and the proper means to prevent those dis- 
eases. Such information, if universally possessed, 
cannot but result in great benefit to the individual and 
the commonwealth. The difficulty is to express one's 
self clearly and popularly on topics never referred to 
in ordinary social intercourse. But as the physician is 
obliged daily to speak in plain yet decorous language 
of such matters, the author felt that the difficulty was 
not unsurmountable. 

He is aware that a respectable though diminishing 

class in the community maintain that nothing which 

relates exclusively to either sex should become the 

C vii ) 



viii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 

subject of popular medical instruction. With every 
inclination to do this class justice, he fells sure that 
such an opinion is radically erroneous. Ignorance is 
no more the mother of purity than she is of religion. 
The men and women who study and practise medicine 
are not the worse, but the better, for their knowledge 
of such matters. So it would be with the community. 
Had every person a sound understanding of the rela- 
tions of the sexes, one of the most fertile sources of 
crime would be removed. 

A brief appendix has been added, directed more 
especially to the professional reader, who may desire 
to consult some of the original authorities upon whom 
the author has drawn. And here he would ask from 
his fellow-members of the medical profession their 
countenance and assistance in his attempt to distribute 
sound information of this character among the people. 
None but physicians can know what sad consequences 
are constantly occurring from the want of it. * * * 



PREFACE 



FIFTH EDITION 



That the FIFTH EDITION and the TENTH 
THOUSAND of this work should be called for within 
three months from its first appearance can .astonish no 
one so much as it does the Author. 

But the gratification which this unexpected success 
naturally gives, is less than the pleasure he feels in the 
kindly reception the book has met from the religious, 
the medical, and the general press, and from the hun- 
dreds of letters from private individuals, assuring him 
that his instructions have proved of real value to them 
in daily life. It is his hope that the additions and cor- 
rections which he has made in this edition will add to 
its usefulness and insure it a still wider popularity. 



(ix) 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

PAGE 
Knowledge is safety — The peculiarities of sex — Examples 
of individuals belonging to both sexes and to neither 
sex — The sphere of woman 15-22 

Parti. THE MAIDEN. 

Puberty 22-52 

What it means — Age when it arrives — Causes that 
hasten it — Causes that delay it — Brunettes mature 
early — The signs of puberty — Its dangers— Spinal 
disease — Green sickness — Hysterics — Secret bad ha- 
bits — Hygiene of puberty — Diet — Exercise — Cloth- 
ing — Precautions during the monthly changes — Be- 
tween the monthly changes — What to do when the 
changes are delayed — When they ajre painful — The 
age of nubility. 

Love 52-89 

Its power in life — What it is — It is necessary and it is 
eternal — Of second marriages and of divorce — Court- 
ship — Love at first sight— How to choose a husband 
— Shall cousins marry ? — Marriage between different 
races and different nations — The proper age of a hus- 
band — His temperament — His moral and mental 
character — Words of warning — Signs of character on 
the body — The engagement — Concerning long en- 
gagements — The right time of year to marry — The 
right time in the month to marry — The wedding tour. 

(ii) 



12 CONTENTS. 



PartE. THE WIFE. 

PAGE 

Hints to Young Wives 9° -I 3 2 

The wedding night — Should husband and wife sleep 
together or apart? — The most healthful bed — The 
dignity and propriety of the sexual instinct — The pro- 
per indulgence and the restraint of sexual desire — 
Marital relations, when they should be suspended — 
When they are painful — Barrenness, its causes and its 
cures — Advice to wives who desire children — The 
limitation of offspring — When it is proper— Justifiable 
means — Injurious means — The crime of abortion — 
The nature of conception — Signs of conception — How 
to retain the affections of a husband. 

Inheritance 132-166 

The varieties of inheritance — The legacy of beauty — 
The complexion — What physical qualities each parent 
bestows — The inheritance of fertility and longevity — 
Even deformities sometimes transmitted — How to have 
beautiful children — Talent and genius may be trans- 
mitted. — The physical traits of fathers in daughters, 
and of mothers in sons — Examples — Influence of edu- 
cation on inherited qualities — Transmission of disease' 
— Of mutilations — H$w to avoid inherited ill tenden- 
cies—The excess of women — How to have boys or 
girls at will — Twins and triplets. 

Pregnancy 167-218 

Veneration of the pregnant woman — Signs of preg- 
nancy — Quickening — Mental changes — Miscarriage, 
its causes, symptoms, and prevention — Mother's marks 
— What makes them ? — How to avoid them — Educa- 
tion of the child in the womb — Are double pregnancies 
possible ? — Instances of double children — Can a child 
cry in the womb ? — Is it a son or a daughter ? — Are 
there twins present? — The duration of pregnancy — 
How to calculate when the confinement will come — 



CONTENTS. 13 

• PAGE 
Care of health during pregnancy — The food, clothing, 
exercise, bathing, ventilation, and sleep — Effect on 
health of body and mind — Relations of husband and 
wife during pregnancy. 

The Confinement 219-242 

Preparations for child-birth — The signs of approach- 
ing labor — The symptoms of actual labor — Attention 
is required during labor — To the mother — To the 
child — To have labor without pain — The risks of 
childbed — Weight and length of new-born children — 
The duration of labor — Stillborn children — Impru- 
dence after childbirth — To preserve the form after 
childbirth. 

Part III. THE MOTHER. 

Nursing 243-270 

The duties and privileges of a mother — Hindrances 
to nursing, and when it is improper — Rules for nurs- 
ing — Influence of diet on the mother's milk — Influence 
of pregnancy on the milk — The mother's mind and her 
infant — Striking examples — Position of the mother 
while nursing — Qualities of a good *nursing mother 
— Excess and deficiency of the milk — Wet-nursing by 
virgins, aged women, and men — Rules for care of 
health while nursing — Relations of husband and wife 
at this time — Over-nursing and the signs of it — Direc- 
tions for mothers who cannot nurse their own children 
— How to select a wet-nurse. 

Part IV. THE CHILD. 

The Care of Infancy 271-324 

The causes of infant mortality — Bringing up by hand 
— Weaning, when and how to do it — Teething — Vac- 
cination and revaccination — The food of infants and 
children — Concerning sleep in early life — The cloth- 

2 



14 CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



ing of children, its pattern, amount, and quality — 
Bathing, ventilation, and exercise in early childhood 
— On learning to walk — The advantages of games and 
plays — On training the sight and hearing. 
The Management of some Diseases of Childhood . 325^-350 
How to recognize and treat croup — Head colds — Fits 
— Nose-bleed — Worms — Bed-wetting — Looseness of 
the bowels — Indigestion — Hints on home^ovemment 
— Is the race physically weaker ? 

PartV. HEALTH IN MAEEIAGR- 

Diseases Incident to Pregnancy 352-360 

Morning sickness — Pain in the abdomen — Varicose 
veins — Piles — Diarrhoea — Constipation — -Cough — 
Wakefulness. 

Diseases Incident to Childbed and Nursing . . . 361-385 
Puerperal mania — White-flowing — Milk-leg — Inward 
weakness — Various causes of weakness — Tight lacing 
one of them — Their treatment — Gathered breasts — 
Cracked nipples. 

Part VI. THE SINGLE LIFE. 

Advantages and Drawbacks of , . 386-388 

PartVTL THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 

Diseases and Hygiene of 389-404 

What it is — Age when it comes — Signs and symptoms 
— Effects on the character — Those who suffer most — 
Diseases and discomforts attending — Precautions and 
remedies. 

Notes 405-420 

Index 420-426 



THE 

PHYSICAL LIFE OF WOMAN. 



KNOWLEDGE IS SAFETY. 



KNOWLEDGE is power,' said the philosopher. 
The maxim is true ; but here is a greater 
truth : ' Knowledge is safety,'— safety amid the 
physical ills that beset us, — safety amid the moral 
pitfalls that environ us. 

Filled with this thought, we write this book. It is 
the Revelation of Science to Woman. It tells her, 
in language which aims at nothing but simplicity, 
.the results which the study of her nature, as distinct 
from that of man, has attained. We may call it her 
physical biography. 

It is high time that such a book were written. The 
most absorbing question of the day is the ' Woman 
Question.' The social problems of chiefest interest 
concern her. And nowhere are those problems more 
zealously studied than in America, which has thrown 
aside the trammels of tradition, and is training its 
free muscles with intent to grapple the untried pos- 
sibilities of social life. Who can guide us in these 
experiments ? What master, speaking as one having 
authority, can advise us ? ' There is such a guide, 
such a master. The laws of woman's physical life 
shape her destiny an^ reveal her future. W 7 ithin 

B 



1 8 PHYSICAL LIFE OF WOMAN. 

these laws all things are possible ; beyond them, 
nothing is of avail. 

Especially should woman herself understand. her 
own nature. How many women are there, with 
health, beauty, merriment, a.y, morality too, all gone, 
lost for ever, through ignorance of themselves ! What 
spurious delicacy is this which would hide from 
woman that which beyond all else it behooves her to 
know? We repudiate it ; and in plain, but decorous 
language, — truth is always decorous, — we purpose to 
divulge those secrets hidden hitherto under the tech- 
nical jargon of science. 

THE DISTINCTION OF THE SEXES. 

i 

The distinction of the sexes belongs neither to the 
highest nor to the lowest forms of existence. Animals 
and vegetables of the humblest character have no sex. 
So it is with spirits. Revelation implies that beyond 
this life sexual characteristics cease. On one occa- 
sion the Sadducees put this question to Christ : 
There was a woman who lawfully had seven hus- 
bands, one after the other ; now, at the resurrection, 
which of these shall be her husband ? or shall they 
all have her to wife ? He replied that hereafter 
there shall be neither marrying nor giving in mar- 
riage, but that all shall be ' as the angels which are 
in heaven.' Sexuality implies reproduction, and 
that is something we do not associate with spiritual 
life. 

It further implies imperfection, which is equally 
far from our hopes of happiness beyond the grave. 
The polyp, which reproduces by a division of itself, 
is in one sense more complete than we are. The 



MAN AND WOMAN. 1 9 

man is in some respects inferior to the woman ; the 
woman in others is subordinate to man. A happy 
marriage, a perfect union, they twain one flesh, is 
the type of the independent, completed being. 
Without the other, either is defective. ' Marriage,' 
said Napoleon, ' is strictly indispensable to happi- 
ness.' 

There is, in fact, a less difference between the 
sexes than is generally believed. They are but 
slight variations from one original plan. Anato- 
mists maintain, with plausible arguments, that there 
is no part or organ in the one sex but has an ana- 
logous part or organ in the other, similar in struc- 
ture, similar in position. Just as the right side 
resembles the left, so does man resemble woman. 
Let us see what differences there really are : 
The frame of woman is shorter and slighter. In 
the United States the men average five feet eight 
inches in height, and one hundred and forty-five 
pounds in weight ; the women, five feet two and a 
half inches in height, and one hundred and twenty- 
five pounds in weight. Man has broad shoulders 
and narrow hips ; woman h^s narrow shoulders and 
broad hips. Her skull is formed of thinner. bones, 
and is in shape more like that of a child. Its capa- 
city, in proportion to her height, is very little less 
than in man, — about one-fiftieth, it is said, — which, 
so far as brain-power is concerned, may readily be 
made up by its finer texture. Her shoulders are 
set farther back than in the other sex, giving hcr 
greater breadth of chest in front. This is brought 
about by the increased length of her collar-"bone ; 
and this is the reason why she can never throw a 

2* B 2 



20 PHYSICAL LIFE OF WOMAN. 

ball or stone with the accuracy of a man. Grace- 
ful in other exercises, here she is awkward. 

Her contour is more rounded, her neck is longer, 
her skin smoother, her voice softer, her hair less 
generally distributed over the body, but stronger 
in growth than in man. She breathes with the 
muscles of her chest — he with those of his abdo- 
men. He has greater muscular force — she more 
power of endurance. Beyond all else she has the 
attributes of maternity, — she is provided with 

• organs to nourish and protect the child before and 
after birth. 

PERSONS OF BOTH SEXES AND OF NEITHER SEX. 
Nature is very sedulous in maintaining these 
differences. It is the rarest thing in the world to 
find a human being of doubtful sex. Many a phy- 
sician disbelieves that there ever has been a person 
of both sexes — a true hermaphrodite. They are 
very scarce, but they do exist. There is one now 

• living in Germany. It bears a female name, Cathe- 
rine Hohmann. She was baptised and brought up 
a female ; but Catherine is as much man as woman. 
The learned professor W anatomy, Rokitansky, of 
Vienna, asserts most positively that this is a real 
hermaphrodite. Her history is sad. Born in 
humble circumstances, when of marriageable age 
she loved a man, who wished her to emigrate with 
him to America. But when she disclosed to him 
her deformity, he broke off the engagement and 
deserted her. Then her affection became fixed on 
a young girl ; but how could she make her suit to 
one apparently of her own sex ? With passions 



PEOPLE OF NO SEX. 21 

that prompt her to seek both sexes, she belongs to 
neither. ' What shall I do here on earth ?' she ex- 
claimed, in tears, to a man of science who recently 
visited her. ' What am I ? In my life an object 
of scientific experiment, and after my death an 
anatomical curiosity.' 

There are also persons — very few indeed — who 
have no sex at all. They are without organs and 
without passions. Such creatures seem to have been 
formed merely to show us that this much-talked- 
of difference of sex is, after all, nothing inherent 
in the constitution of things, and that individuals 
may be born, live and thrive, of both sexes, or of 
neither. 

THE SPHERE OF WOMAN. 

Our province lies within the physical sphere of 
woman. But we will here allow ourselves a momen- 
tary digression. It will be seen that while these 
differences are not radical, yet they are peculiarly 
permanent. They hint to us the mental and intel- 
lectual character of woman. What opinion should 
we hold on this much-vexed question ? 

To this effect : The mental faculties of man and 
woman are unlike, but not unequal. Any argu- 
ment to the contrary, drawn from the somewhat 
less weight of the brain of woman, is met by the 
fcict that the most able men are often undersized, 
with small heads. The subordinate place which 
woman occupies in most states, arises partly from 
the fact that the part she plays in reproduction 
prevents her from devoting her # whole time and 
energies to the acquisition of power, and partly 



22 PHYSICAL LIFE OF WOMAN. 

from the fact that those faculties in which she is 
superior to man have been obscured and oppressed 
by the animal vigor and selfishness of the male. 
As civilisation advances, the natural rights of woman 
will be more and more freely conceded, until the 
sexes become absolutely equal before the law ; 
and, finally, her superiority in many respects will 
be granted, and she will reap the benefits of all the 
advantages it brings, without desiring to encroach 
on those avocations for which masculine energy and 
strength are imperatively needed. 

The most peculiar features of woman's life are 
hers for a limited period only. Man is man for a 
longer time than woman is woman. With him it is 
a life-time matter ; with her it is but for a score of 
years or so. Her child-bearing period is less than 
half her life. Within this time she passes through 
all the phases of that experience which is peculiarly 
her own. 

And these phases, what are they ? Nature her- 
self defines them. They are three in number, — the 
Maiden, the Wife, and the Mother. In one and 
then another of this triad, her life passes. Each 
has its own duties and dangers ; each demands its 
own precautions ; each must be studied by itself. 

Let us at once commence this important study, 
and proceed in the order of time. 



THE MAIDEN, 



PUBERTY. 

AT a certain period in the life of the female, she 
ceases to be a girl, and becomes a woman. 
Hitherto she has felt no distinction between herself 
and the boys, her playmates. But now a crisis 
takes place, which is for ever after to hedge her 
round with a mysterious, invisible, but most real 
barrier from all mankind. 

This period is called the age of puberty. Its sign 
is a flow of blood recurring every month ; its mean- 
ing, that the female has entered upon that portion 
of her life whose peculiar obligations are to the 
whole race — no longer to herself alone. The second 
part of her twofold nature is opened. Why is it that 
on her, the weaker sex, this extra burden is laid ? 
Why this weakness, these pains, this recurring loss 
of vital fluid ? 

Perhaps, as has been observed, it is a wise pro- 
vision that she is thus reminded of her lowly 
duty, lest man should make her the sole object of 
his worship, or lest the pride of beauty should 
obscure the sense of shame. But this question 
concerns rather the moralist than the physician, and 
we cease asking why it is, and shall only inquire 
what it is. 



24 THE MAIDEN. 

To this science returns a -clear reply. In the 
anatomy of woman there are two small bodies, in 
shape and size like large almonds, called the 
ovaries. They lie one on each side of the womb, and 
are connected with it by tubes about four inches in 
length. These bodies are solid, but contain a great 
number of diminutive vesicles, which, by some mys- 
terious law of nature, mature one at a time, every 
thirty days, for thirty years of woman's life. When 
mature, the vesicle separates from the ovary, tra- 
verses the tube into the womb, and is thence ex- 
pelled and lost, or becomes, by contact with the 
other sex, the germ of a living being. This process 
is accompanied by a disturbance of the whole 
system. Wandering pains are felt ; a sense of 
languor steals over the mind ; the blood rushes 
with' increased, violence through the vessels, and 
more or less of it escapes from the veins, causing 
that change which we term menstruation. 

The ancients had a tradition that in the beginning 
of things the world was made from an egg ; the 
naturalists of past generations had this maxim : 
Everything living comes from an egg ; and science 
to-day says the same. For this vesicle we have 
mentioned is in fact an egg, similar in structure to 
those which birds, fish, and turtles deposit. The 
only differences are, that the one is developed out 
of the body, the other within ; the one has a shell, 
the other has none. 

Therefore physiologists give this definition : 
Menstruation is ovulation, — it is the laying of an 

egg- 



THE AGE OF PUBERTY. 2$ 



WHAT IS THE AGE OF PUBERTY ? 

This has been a matter of careful study by phy- 
sicians. They have collected great numbers of 
observations, and have reached this conclusion : 
In the middle portion of the temperate zone, the 
average age when the first period appears in healthy 
girls is fourteen years and six months. If it occurs 
more than six months later or earlier than this, then 
it is likely something is wrong, or, at least, the case 
is exceptional. 

Exceptional cases, where this average is widely 
departed from in apparently perfect health, are rare. 
But they do occur. We have known instances 
where the solicitude of parents has been excited by 
the long delay of this constitutional change, and 
others in which it has taken place at an almost 
tender age, without causing any perceptible injury 
to the general health. 

There is an instance recorded, on good authority, 
where a French child but three years old underwent 
all the physical changes incident to puberty, and 
grew to be a healthy woman. But what children 
can surpass the American in precocity ? This French 
child-woman is quite left in the shade by one de- 
scribed in a recent number of a western medical 
journal, who from her birth had regular monthly 
changes, and the full physical development which 
marks the perfect woman ! 

Thus, sometimes, a wide deviation from the ave- 
rage age we have stated occurs, without having any 
serious meaning. Yet at no time is such a devia- 
tion to be neglected. In nine out of ten instances 



26 THE MAIDEN. 

it is owing to some fault in the constitution, the 
health, or formation, which should be ascertained 
and corrected. Otherwise years of broken health 
and mental misery may be the sad results. Mothers, 
teachers, it is with you this responsibility rests. 
The thousands of wretched wives, who owe their 
wretchedness to a neglect of proper attention at 
this turning-point of their lives, warn you how seri- 
ous is this responsibility. 

The foundation of old age, says a distinguished 
author, is laid in childhood ; but the health of 
middle-life depends upon puberty. Never was there 
a truer maxim. The two years which change the 
girl to the woman often seal for ever the happiness 
or the hopeless misery of her whole life. They de- 
cide whether she is to become a healthy, helpful, 
cheerful wife and mother, or a languid, complaining 
invalid, to whom marriage is a curse, children an 
affliction, and life itself a burden. 

We reiterate our warning : Mothers, teachers, you 
to whom children are confided at this crisis of their 
lives, look well to it that you appreciate, under- 
stand, and observe the duties you have assumed. 
Let no false modesty prevent you from learning and 
enforcing those precautions, so necessary at this 
period of life. 

WHAT HASTENS AND WHAT RETARDS PUBERTY? 

As a rule, we find that those who develope early, 
fade early. A short childhood portends a prema- 
ture old age. It often foreshadows, also, a feeble 
middle-life. 

Having ascertained, therefore, what is the average 



INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE. 2.J 

age at which puberty takes place with us, let us see 
what conditions anticipate or retard this age. 

The most important is climate. 

In hot climates, man, like the vegetation, has a 
surprising rapidity of growth. Marriages are usual 
at twelve or fourteen years of age. Puberty comes 
to both sexes as early as at ten and eleven years. 
We even read in the life of Mohammed, that one 
of his wives, when but ten years of age; bore him a 
son. Let another dozen years pass, and these 
blooming maidens have been metamorphosed into 
wrinkled, faded old women. The beauty of their 
precocious youth has withered almost literally like 
a flower which is plucked. 

Very different is it in the cold and barren regions 
of the far north. There man, once more partaking 
of the nature of his surroundings, yields as slowly to 
the impulses of his passions as does the ice-bound 
earth to the slanting rays of the summer sun. 
Maturity, so quick to come, so swift to leave in the 
torrid heats, arrives, chilled by the long winters, to 
the girls of Lapland, Norway, and Siberia, only 
when they are eighteen and nineteen years of age. 
But, in return for this, they retain their vigor and 
good looks to a green old age. 

Between these extremes, including as they do the 

whole second decade of existence, this important 

change takes place normally in different latitudes. 

We have said that in the middle temperate zone the 

proper age is fourteen years and six months. Let 

us now see what conditions lead to deviations from 

this age in our climate. 

First on the list is that sacred fire handed down 
3 



28 THE MAIDEN. 

to us from our ancestors, which we call, in our 
material language, the constitution. 

The females of certain races, certain families, it is 
often noticed, mature earlier than their neighbours. 
Jewesses, for example, are always precocious, earlier 
by one or two years. So are colored girls, and 
those of Creole lineage. We can guess the reasons 
here. No doubt these children still retain in their 
blood the tropic fire which, at comparatively recent 
periods, their forefathers felt under the vertical rays 
of the torrid zone. 

Nor is this all. It is well ascertained, from nume- 
rous observations, that brunettes develope sooner 
than their blonde sisters ; that those who will grow 
to be large women are slower than those whose 
stature will be small ; that the dark-haired and 
black-eyed are more precocious in this respect than 
the light-haired and blue- eyed ; that the fat, slug- 
gish girl is more tardy than the slender, active one ; 
that, in general, what is known as the nervo-bilious 
temperament is ever ahead of that called the lym- 
phatic or phlegmatic. 

It is a familiar fact, that it is not a good sign to 
see this change before the usual average time. It 
betokens a weakly, excitable, diminutive frame. 
Hard labor, vigorous, regular muscular exertion — 
prime health, in other words — never tends to anti- 
cipate this epoch, but rather to retard it. 

With this warning fresh in our ears, let us now 
rehearse what causes constantly incline unduly to 
hasten puberty, and thus to forestall wise Nature in 
her plans for health and beauty. They are of two 
kinds, — physical and mental. 



CAUSES OF PREMATURE PUBERTY. 2 9 

Idleness of body, highly-seasoned food, stimulat- 
ing beverages, such as beer, wine, liqueurs, and, in 
a less degree, coffee and tea, irregular habits of 
sleep, — these are the physical causes of premature 
development. But the mental causes are still more 
potent. 

Whatever stimulates the emotions leads to an un- 
naturally early sexual life. Late hours, children's 
parties, sensational novels, ' flashy ' papers, love 
stories, the drama, the ball-room, talk of beaux, 
love, and marriage, — that atmosphere of riper years 
which is so often and so injudiciously thrown around 
childhood, — all hasten the event which transforms 
the girl into the woman. A particular emphasis 
has been laid by some physicians on the power of 
music to awaken the dormant susceptibilities to 
passion, and on this account its too general or 
earnest cultivation by children has been objected 
to. Educators would do well to bear this caution 
in mind. 

How powerfully these causes work is evident 
when we compare the average age of puberty in 
large cities and in country districts. The females 
in the former mature from six to eight months 
sooner than those in the latter. This is unquestion- 
ably owing to their mode of life, — physically indo- 
lent, mentally over-stimulated. The result, too, is 
seen with painful plainness in comparing the sturdy, 
well-preserved farm-wife of thirty, with the languid, 
pale, faded city lady of the same age. 



30 THE MAIDEN. 



THE CHANGES IT WORKS. 

Two short years change the awkward and angular 
girl of fourteen into the trim and graceful maiden 
of sweet sixteen. Wonderful metamorphosis ! The 
magic wand of the fairy has touched her, and she 
comes forth a new being, a vision of beauty to be- 
witch the world. 

Let us analyze this change. 

The earliest sign of approaching puberty is a 
deposit of fat in the loose cellular tissue under the 
skin. This gives roundness to the form, and grace 
to the movements. According to a distinguished 
naturalist (Buffon), it is first observable by a slight 
swelling of the groins. Thence it extends over the 
whole body. The breasts especially receive addi- 
tions, and develope to form the perfect bust. 

Parts of the body previously free from hair be- 
come covered with a soft growth, and that which 
covers the head acquires more vigor and gloss, 
usually becoming one or two shades darker. The 
eyes brighten, and acquire unwonted significance. 
These windows of the soul betray to the close ob- 
server the novel emotions which are arising in the 
mind within. 

The voice, too, shares in the transformation. The 
piping, slender articulation of the child gives way 
to the rich, melodious, soft voice of woman — the 
sweetest music man ever hears. To the student of 
humanity, to the observant physician, nothing is 
more symbolical of the whole nature than the voice. 
Would you witness a proof of its power ? Watch 



SIGNS OF PUBERTY. 31 

how a person born blind unerringly discriminates 
the character of those he meets by this alone. 

Beyond all external modifications, we find others, 
which indicate how profound is the alteration now 
taking place. The internal organs of the body as- 
sume new functions and new powers. The taste for 
food changes, hinting that the system has demands 
hitherto unknown. Those organs we have adverted 
to, called the ovaries, increase in size, as also does 
the uterus. The very framework of the structure 
does not escape. The bones increase in weight, 
and those around the hips expand, and give the 
female her distinctive form, upon the perfection of 
which her life and that of her children depend. 

MENTAL CHANGES. 

Such are the changes which strike the eye. But 
there are others which are not less significant, and 
which demand far more urgently our watchful heed. 
New thoughts, strange desires, are invading the 
soul. A novel relation is assumed to the world. 
It is vague, misunderstood, but disturbing all the 
same. 

The once light-hearted girl inclines to reveries ; 
she seeks solitude ; her mother surprises her in 
causeless tears ; her teacher discovers an unwonted 
inattention to her studies, a less retentive memory, 
a disinclination to mental labor ; her father misses 
her accustomed playfulness ; he, perhaps, is annoyed 
by her listlessness and inertia. What does it all 
mean ? What is the matter with the girl ? 

Mother, teacher, father, it is for you to know the 

answers to these questions. You have guarded this 
3* 



32 THE MAIDEN. 

girl through years of helpless infancy and thought- 
less childhood. At the peril of her life, and of what 
is of more value than life, do not now relax your 
vigilance. Every day the reaper Death reaps with 
his keen sickle the flowers of our land. The mothers 
weep, indeed ; but little do they realize that it is 
because they have neglected to cherish them as was 
their duty, that the Lord of Paradise has taken 
them back unto Himself. 

THE COMPLETION OF PUBERTY. 

The symptoms increase until at length the system 
has acquired the necessary strength, and furnished 
itself with reserve forces enough to complete its 
transformation. Then the monthly flow com- 
mences. 

In thoroughly healthy girls it continues to recur 
at regular intervals, from twenty-five to thirty days 
apart. This is true of about three out of four. In 
others, a long interval, sometimes six months, occurs 
between the first and second sickness. If the 
general health be not in the least impaired, this 
need cause no anxiety. Irregularities are found in 
the first year or two, which often right themselves 
afterwards. But whenever they are associated with 
the slightest signs of mental or bodily disorder, they 
demand instant and intelligent attention. 

It used to be supposed that the periods of the 
monthly sickness were in some way connected with 
the phases of the moon. So general is this belief 
even yet in France, that a learned Academician not 
long since thought it worth while carefully to com- 
pare over four thousand observations, to see whether 



EFFECTS OF PUBERTY. 33 

they did bear any relations to the lunar phases. It 
is hardly worth while to add that he found none. 

We have known perfectly healthy young women 
who were ill every sixteen days, and others in whom 
a period of thirty-five or thirty-six days would 
elapse. The reasons of such differences are not 
clear. Some inherited peculiarity of constitution is 
doubtless at work. Climate is of primary import- 
ance. Travellers in Lapland, and other countries 
in the far north, say that the women there are not 
regulated more frequently than three or four times 
a year. Hard labor and a phlegmatic temperament 
usually prolong the interval between the periodical 
illnesses. 

An equal diversity prevails in reference to the 
length of time the discharge continues. The aver- 
age of a large number of cases observed in healthy 
women, between the ages of fifteen and thirty-five, 
is four days and a fraction. In a more general way, 
we may say from two to six days is the proper dura- 
tion. Should it diverge widely from this, then it is 
likely some mischief is at work. 

In relation to the amount of the discharge, every 
woman is a law unto herself. Usually, it is four or 
five ounces in all. Habits of life are apt to modify 
it materially. Here, again, those exposed to pro- 
longed cold and inured to severe labor escape more 
easily than their sisters petted in the lap of luxury. 
Delicate, feeble, nervous women — those, in other 
words, who can least afford the loss of blood — 
are precisely those who lose the most. Nature, 
who is no tender mother, but a stern step-mother, 
thus punishes them for disregarding her laws. 

c 



34 THE MAIDEN. 

Soft couches, indolent ease, highly spiced food ; 
warm rooms, weak muscles, — these are the infrac- 
tions of her rules which she revenges with vigorous, 
ay, merciless severity. 

It is well known, too, that excitement of the 
emotions, whether of anger, joy, grief, hatred, or 
love, increases the discharge. Even the vulgar are 
aw T are of this, and, misinterpreting it as half-know- 
ledge always does, suppose it a sign of stronger 
animal passions. ' It bears no such meaning. But 
the fact reads us a lesson how important it is to 
cultivate a placid mind, free from strong decire or 
fear, and to hold all our emotions in the firm leash 
of reason. 

Physicians attach great importance to the cha- 
racter of the discharge. It should be thin, watery, 
dark-coloured, and never clot. If it clots, it is an 
indication that something is wrong. 

THE DANGERS OF PUBERTY. 

We have shown that there are constantly indivi- 
dual deviations, quite consistent with health, from 
any given standard. They only become significant 
of disease when they depart decidedly from the 
average, either in the frequency of the illness, its 
duration, the amount of the discharge, or the 
character. More or less pain, more or less prostra- 
tion and general disturbances at these epochs, are 
universal and inevitable. They are part of the 
sentence which at the outset He pronounced upon 
the woman, when He said unto her, ' I will greatly 
multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.' Yet with 
merciful kindness He has provided means by which 



DANGERS OF PUBERTY. 35 

the pain may be greatly lessened, and the sorrow 
avoided ; and that we may learn and observe these 
means, their neglect often increases a hundred-fold 
the natural suffering. 

At this critical period, the seeds of hereditary and 
constitutional diseases manifest themselves. They 
draw fresh malignancy from the new activity of the 
system. The first symptoms of tubercular consump- 
tion, of scrofula, of obstinate and disfiguring skin 
diseases, of hereditary insanity, of congenita epi- 
lepsy, of a hundred terrible maladies, which from 
birth rfave lurked in the child, biding the oppor- 
tunity of attack, suddenly spring from their lairs, 
and hurry her to the grave or the madhouse. If we 
ask why so many fair girls of eighteen or twenty 
are followed by weeping friends to an early tomb, 
the answer is, chiefly from diseases which had their 
origin at the period of puberty. 

It is impossible for us here to rehearse all the 
minute symptoms, each almost trifling in itself, 
which warn the practised physician of the approach 
of one of these fearful foes in time to allow him to 
make a defence. We can do little more than iterate 
the warning, that whenever, at this momentous 
epoch, any disquieting change appears, be it physi- 
cal or mental, let not a day be lost in summoning 
skilled, competent medical advice. 

There is, however, a train of symptoms so fre- 
quent, so insidious, so fruitful with agony of mind 
and body, that we shall mention them particularly. 
They illustrate, at once, how all-important is close 
observation, and how significant to the wise phy- 
sician are trifles seemingly light as air. 

C2 

t 



36 THE MAIDEN. 

If you notice a girl of fourteen or sixteen, who, in 
walking, always gives one arm in preference to the 
other to her companion ; if, in sleeping, she mostly 
lies on the same side ; if, in sitting, she is apt to 
prefer a chair with a low back, and throws one arm 
over its back ; if you perceive that she always sits 
with one foot a little in advance of the other ; if 
she, on inquiry, confesses to slight, wandering pains 
in one side of her chest, — do not chide her for awk- 
wardness. These are ominous portents. They 
mean spinal disease, than which a more fearful 
malady is hardly known to medicine. 

Not less stealthy is the approach of disease of 
the hip-joint, of white swelling of the knee, of con- 
sumption, — all curable if taken in hand at the very 
first, all well-nigh hopeless when they have once 
unmasked their real features. 

Apart from these general dangers, to which those 
of thoroughly sound constitutions are not exposed, 
there are disorders called functional, to which all 
are subject. 

GREEN SICKNESS. 

When we speak of the ( green sickness,' we men- 
tion perhaps the most common of all, and one of 
which every mother has heard. Doctors call it 
chlorosis, which also means greenness ; for one of 
its most common and peculiar symptoms is a pale 
complexion with a greenish tinge. 

It never occurs except at or near the age of 
puberty, and was long supposed to be merely an 
impoverishment of the blood. Now, however, we 
have learned that it is a disease of the nervous sys- 



GREEN SICKNESS. 37 

tern, and one very often confounded by physicians 
with other complaints. 

Its attack is insidious. A distaste for exertion 
and society, a fitful appetite, low spirits, — these are 
all the symptoms noticed at first. Then, one by 
one, come palpitation of the heart, an unhealthy 
complexion, irregularity, dyspepsia, depraved tastes, 
— such as a desire to eat slate-pencil dust, chalk, or 
clay, — vague pains in body and limbs, a bad temper; 
until the girl, after several months, is a peevish, 
wretched, troublesome invalid. 

Then, if a physician is called in, and gives her 
iron, and tells her nothing is the matter, or is him- 
self alarmed, and imagines she has heart disease or 
consumption, it is a chance if she does not rapidly 
sink, out of mere fright and over-much dosing, into 
some fatal complaint. Let it be well understood 
that chlorosis, though often obstinate and obscure, 
is always curable if properly and promptly treated. 
The remedies must be addressed to the nervous 
system, and can be administered with intelligence 
only by a competent medical adviser. It can be 
prevented by a hygienic mode of life, and, as its 
most common causes are anxiety, home-sickness, 
want of exercise, or overwork at school, nothing 
is so salutary in its early stages as a change of 
air and scene, cheerful company, a tour to the 
mountains or some watering-place, and regular 
exercise. 

Many young women suffer considerable pain 
during their monthly illness. This may arise from 
many different causes, such as, congestion, inflam- 
mation, malformation, or a wrong position of the 



38 THE MAIDEN. 

parts, or over-sensitive nerves. They can only be 
successfully treated when the cause is known ; and 
they may rest assured that this suffering, in nearly 
every case, can be removed. 

Sometimes a girl grows to the age of eighteen or 
twenty without having her periodical changes. We 
have already said that this is not unusual in some 
climates and in some families ; so, as long as the 
general health is good and the spirits cheerful, — 
always an important point, — it need cause no 
anxiety. But if the health grow poor, and espe- 
cially if there be pains and weakness recurring 
monthly without discharge, then something is 
wrong, and the doctor should be consulted. 

HYSTERICS. 

There is a disease of the nerves to which girls 
about the age of puberty are very subject, particu- 
larly in the higher circles of society, where their 
emotions are over-educated and their organization 
delicate. It is called hysteria, and more commonly 
hysterics. Frequently it deceives both doctor and 
friends, and is supposed to be some dangerous com- 
plaint. Often it puts on the symptoms of epilepsy, 
or heart disease, or consumption. We have wit- 
nessed the most frightful convulsions in girls of 
fourteen or fifteen, which were brought on by this 
complaint. Sometimes it injures the mind ; and it 
should always receive prompt and efficient atten- 
tion, as it is always curable. 

This disease is apt to produce a similar affection 
in other girls of the same age who see the attacks. 
For this reason, hysterical girls should not be sent 



NERVOUS AFFECTIONS. 39 

to large schools, but cured at home. Often a strong 
mental impression restores them. The anecdote is 
told of a celebrated surgeon (Boerhaave) who was 
called to a female seminary where there was a 
number of hysterical girls. He summoned them 
together, heated a number of iron instruments 
before their eyes, and told them that the first one 
who had a fit should be cauterized down the spine. 
They all recovered immediately. 

SECRET BAD HABITS. 

We now approach a part of our subject which we 
would gladly omit, did not constant experience ad- 
monish us of our duty to speak of it in no uncertain 
tone. We refer to the disastrous consequences on 
soul and body to which young girls expose them- 
selves by exciting and indulging morbid passions. 
Years ago, Miss Catherine E. Beecher sounded a 
note of warning to the mothers of America on this 
secret vice, which leads their daughters to the grave, 
the madhouse, or, worse yet, the brothel. 

Gladly would we believe that her timely admoni- 
tion had done away with the necessity for its repe- 
tition. But though we believe such a habit is more 
rare than many physicians suppose, it certainly 
exists to a degree that demands attention. Sur- 
geons have recently been forced to devise painful 
operations to hinder young girls from thus ruining 
themselves ; and we must confess that, in its worst 
form, it is absolutely incurable. 

The results of the constant nervous excitement 
which this habit produces are bodily weakness, loss 
of memory, low spirits, distressing nervousnes, as 



40 THE MAIDEN. 

capricious appetite, dislike of company and of study, 
and finally, paralysis, imbecility, or insanity. Let 
it not be supposed that there are many who suffer 
thus severely ; but, on the other hand, let it be 
clearly understood that any indulgence whatever 
in these evil courses is attended with bad effects, 
especially because they create impure desires and 
thoughts, which will prepare the girl to be a will- 
ing victim to the arts of profligacy. There is no 
more solemn duty resting on those who have the 
charge of young females than to protect them 
against this vice. 

But, it is exclaimed, is it not dangerous to tell 
them anything about it ? Such a course is unne- 
cessary. Teach them that any handling of the 
parts, any indecent language, any impure thought, 
is degrading and hurtful. See that the servants, 
nurses, and companions with whom they associate 
are not debased ; and recommend scrupulous clean- 
liness. 

If the habit is discovered, do not scold nor whip 
the child. It is often a result of disease, and in- 
duced by a disagreeable local itching. Sometimes 
this is connected with a disorder of the womb, and 
very frequently with worms in the bowels. Let the 
case be submitted to a judicious, skilful medical 
adviser, and the girl will yet be saved. But do not 
shut your eyes, and refuse to see this fact when it 
exists. Mothers are too often unwilling to enter- 
tain for a moment the thought that their daughters 
are addicted to such a vice, when it is only too 
plain to the physician. 



DO NOT STARVE GIRLS. 4 1 



THE HYGIENE OF PUBERTY. 

Concerning the maladies of puberty, we may 
broadly say, that if we are obliged to have recourse 
to medicine, it is because we have neglected hy- 
giene. That the period requires assiduous care, we 
grant ; but given that care, drugs will be needless. 

In a general way, we have already emphasized 
the danger of indolence and the benefits of exercise 
or labor ; the perils of exciting the emotions, and 
the advantages of a placid disposition ; the impro- 
priety of premature development, and the wisdom 
of simplicity and moderation. This is an old story 
— a thrice-told tale. Let us go more into minutiae. 

One of the most frequent causes of disease, 
about the age of puberty, is starvation. Many a 
girl is starved to death. Food is given her, but not 
of the right quality, or in insufficient quantity, or 
at improper hours. The system is not nourished, 
and, becoming feeble, it is laid open to the attacks 
of disease, and to no form of disease more readily 
than to consumption. 

To correct this, let the food be varied, simply 
prepared, and abundant. Good fresh milk should 
be used daily, while tea and coffee should be with- 
held. Fat meats and vegetable oils, generally dis- 
liked by girls at this age, are exactly what they 
need ; and were they partaken of more freely, there 
would be less inquiry at the druggists for cod-liver 
oil. 

A modern writer of eminence lays it down as 
one of the most common causes of consumption in 



42 THE MAIDEN. 

young people, that just at the age when their phy- 
sical system is undergoing such important changes, 
that invaluable article of diet, milk, is generally 
dropped, and nothing equally rich in nitrogen sub- 
stituted in its place. 

Exercise, whether as games, the skipping rope, 
croquet, walking, dancing, riding, and calisthenics, 
or as regular labor, is highly beneficial, especially 
when it leads one into the fresh air, the sunshine, 
and the country. A particular kind of exercise is 
to be recommended for those whose chests are 
narrow, whose shoulders stoop, and who have a 
hereditary predisposition to consumption. If it is 
systematically practised along with other means of 
health, we would guarantee any child, no matter 
how many relatives have died of this disease, 
against its invasion. It is voluntary inspiration. 
Nothing is more simple. Let her stand erect, 
throw the shoulders well back, and the hands behind ; 
then let her slowly inhale pure air to the full capa- 
city of the lungs, and retain it a few seconds by an 
increased effort ; then it may be slowly exhaled. 
After one or two natural inspirations, let her repeat 
the act, and so on for ten or fifteen minutes, twice 
daily. Not only is this simple procedure a safe- 
guard against consumption, but, in the opinion of 
some learned physicians, it can even cure it when 
it has already commenced. 

At first the monthly loss of blood exhausts the 
system. Therefore, plenty of food, plenty of rest, 
plenty of sleep, are required. That ancient pre- 
judice in favour of early rising should be discarded 
now, and the girl should retire early, and, if she will, 



THE HYGIENE OE PUBERTY. 43 

should sleep late. Hard study, care, or anxiety 
should be spared her. This is not the time for rigid 
discipline. 

Clothing is a matter of importance, and, if we 
were at all sure of attention, there is much we would 
say of it. The thought seriously troubles us, that so 
long as women consent to deform themselves and 
sacrifice their health to false ideas of beauty, it is 
almost hopeless to urge their fitness for, and their 
right to a higher life than they now enjoy. No 
educated painter or sculptor is ignorant of what the 
model of female beauty is ; no fashionable woman 
is content unless she departs from it as far as pos- 
sible. 

Now beauty implies health, and ugliness of form 
is attained not only at the expense of aesthetics, 
but of comfort. The custom of fastening growing 
girls in tight corsets, of flattening their breasts with 
pads, of distorting their feet in small high-heeled 
shoes, and of teaching them to stoop and mince in 
gait, is calculated to disgust every observer of good 
sense and taste, and, what is of more consequence, 
to render these girls, when they become women, 
more liable to every species of suffering connected 
with child-bearing. 

The monthly change is the prelude to maternity. 
On its healthful recurrence depends present comfort 
and future health ; and not these alone, but also 
happiness in marriage, easy child-beds, and the con- 
stitution of children to a degree the thoughtless girl 
and even the mature woman rarely understand. 
She, therefore, who neglects the due care of her own 
condition, violates a duty owed to others as well as 

4* 



44 THE MA13EN. 

herself. We would have mothers impress this on 
their daughters. Let no mistaken modesty prevent 
them. 

Especially at their commencement should the 
monthly changes be carefully watched. The mother 
should prepare her daughter's mind betimes for 
such an expected incident in her life, thus pre- 
venting a useless fright, or the employment of in- 
jurious means to stop what the child may look 
upon as an accident. 

Nor should the maternal care cease here. Such 
tender sympathy should exist on the one side, 
such trusting confidence on the other, that the 
mother should acquaint herself with every detail 
of each recurring period until the function is 
thoroughly established. She should inquire into 
the duration of each epoch, the abundance of the 
discharge, the presence of pain, and its effects on 
the general health. She should convince herself 
that all these do not vary from the standards of 
health we have previously laid down. Or should 
they do so, she should not delay to use the proper 
means to bring them to that standard. 

Long observation proves that if, during the first 
two or three years which follow the attainment 
of puberty, the health of the girl is successfully 
guarded, and this, her most important physical 
distinction, meets with no derangement, her life- 
long health is well-nigh secured ; but, on the con- 
trary, if she commences her sexual life with pain 
and disorder, she is likely to be a life-long 
sufferer. 

We are about to approach a topic of vital im- 



MONTHLY* DAYS OF REST. 45 

portance, therefore, in summing up as briefly as 
may be, the precautions necessary to attain this 
end. They can most conveniently be divided 
into those to be observed during the monthly 
changes, and those more general rules of health 
to be obeyed in the intervals of the periods. 

PRECAUTIONS DURING THE MONTHLY CHANGES. 

At the head of all cautions and warnings which 
we could give about the care of the health at 
these monthly periods, we put rest, rest, bodily 
and mental. Do less than usual, we say to all, 
whether the necessity for it is manifest or not 
Over-exertion is a most fruitful cause of disease. 
Long walks, shopping, dancing, riding, hard work 
whether for pleasure or profit, should be avoided to 
the utmost. 

The advantages of rest cannot be over-estimated. 
A striking example of it occurs to our mind. Most 
readers are aware how toilsome are the lives of the 
Indian women among our Western tribes, and also 
how singularly easy and almost painless is their 
child-bearing. The pangs of travail are almost un- 
known to them. The cause of this has puzzled even 
physicians. We can tell them. It is because it is an 
inviolable, a sacred rule among all those tribes, for 
the woman, when having her monthly sickness, to 
drop all work, absent herself from the lodge, and 
remain in perfect rest as long as the discharge con- 
tinues. 

Traces of this wide-spread custom among primi- 
tive people, extended themselves, are discoverable 
among civilized lands. The famous general council 



46 THE MAIDEN. 

of the Christian Church held at Nice in the fourth 
century, passed a rule disapproving of women com- 
ing to church at the times of their menstrual sick- 
ness. The cold and dampness of large edifices, the 
mental excitement and its unfavourable effects, and 
the exertion requisite for long walks to and fro, 
would justify this rule on purely hygienic grounds, 
and such may have caused its adoption. 

A moderate and uniform temperature favors 
health at such epochs ; while exposure to heat or 
cold, and the drinking freely of iced water or stimu- 
lants should be shunned. 

The popular belief that bathing is hurtful, is 
correct so far as either cold or hot baths are con- 
cerned ; but it is well to know, in the interests of 
comfort and cleanliness, that a moderately warm- 
bath, about 8o° Fahr., will do no injury. Such a 
bath can be taken without any hesitation. 

We sanction, also, another well-known rule, and 
that is, that no purgative medicine should be taken 
immediately before or during the change. If called 
for by some other disorder, a mild laxative is all 
that should be administered, unless by the direction 
of a physician. 

PRECAUTIONS IN THE INTERVALS OF THE 
MONTHLY CHANGES. 

If girls suffer from irregularities in this respect, 
the causes can generally be found either in some 
affection threatening the general health, such as 
scrofula, consumption, green sickness, etc., or else 
in their mode of life. For the former, the family 
physician must be consulted ; but if it is the latter 



CAUSES OF IRREGULARITIES. 47 

which is at fault, the remedy is in the hands of the 
parents. 

Boarding-school life, city life, mental troubles — 
these are the three fertile sources of disturbances in 
the sexual functions of girlhood. 

No one rates at higher value than ourselves the 
training of the mind ; but we do not hesitate a 
moment to urge that if perturbations of the func- 
tions become at all marked in a girl at school, she 
should be taken away. Better live at home in seem- 
ing idleness a year at that time of life, than become 
a dead-weight, through constant ill health, on her 
husband in after life. 

So of the unwholesome excitement of a city life. 
There is a poison in crowds, and it acts in a thou- 
sand unseen ways. With the ceaseless noise, the 
broken sleep, the late hours, the impure air, and the 
nervous tension which all these produce, it requires 
no strength of imagination to perceive that the 
city is not the best place for the delicate girl. 

We have mentioned mental troubles. Perhaps 
there are, among those who read this, some super- 
ficial enough to smile at the possibility of serious 
mental troubles in girlhood. There are, we know, 
many unfeeling enough to give them no attention 
when they do see them. But we have an unfail- 
ing witness in the sympathetic heart of the mother. 
She has not forgotten how bitter were the crosses 
of her own younger years ; she knows that the 
sensitive soul of woman wakes early to the keenest 
appreciation of grief as well as joy. If anything, 
years blunt us, and the sorrows of youth are often 
the bitterest of our lives. 



48 - THE MAIDEN. 

Let the mother, therefore, read with her wondrous 
maternal instinct the trials of her daughter ; let her 
become her most intimate confidant, and pour upon 
the wounded spirit that balm which none but a 
woman, and that woman a mother, knows how to 
apply. Such a relationship of mother and daughter 
is no less natural and wholesome than it is beau- 
tiful. 

WHEN THE CHANGES ARE DELAYED. 

In health an equal interval, or one nearly equal, 
elapses between the monthly illnesses. Often in the 
spring, however, their appearance anticipates the 
expected date of their occurrence, and in the 
autumn they are frequently a day or two late. 
These variations are owing to the temperature, 
heat accelerating and cold retarding the process of 
ovulation. 

Such slight irregularities need not give rise to 
anxiety ; but if there is an unwonted delay, com- 
bined with other symptoms of ill-health, as head- 
ache, pain in the side and back, a sense of languor 
and exhaustion, loss of appetite, and nausea, and 
fitful sleep, then it is important that some steps be 
taken to bring on the courses. For this purpose, 
soaking the feet in hot-mustard water, a tumbler of 
hot ginger or camomile-tea, a brisk walk, or a gentle 
laxative will generally be found sufficient. Gently 
kneading the lower abdomen and loins is a familiar, 
and if intelligently done, a safe means for the same 
purpose. 

More violent means than these should be es- 
chewed. Whichever are used subsequent to their 



PAINFUL PERIODS. 49 

employment, rest, in a recumbent position, in a 
warm room should be secured. 

WHEN THE CHANGES ARE PAINFUL. 

There are wide individual differences in this re- 
spect. Some young women suffer much from local 
pains, headache and languor at such epochs, without 
apparently losing anything in general health ; others 
experience no distress whatever. 

The causes of painful periods are various. Some- 
times they depend on a tendency to rheumatism or 
to ague. Over-work, or excessive devotion to social 
duties and pleasures, is often their source. Cold and 
damp are common incidental causes. Green sick- 
ness and general debility are sometimes to blame. 

Of course the treatment must depend on which 
one of these is present. It is a good rule, however, 
always to wear flannel next the skin ; also, to avoid 
exposure to the weather for several days before the 
change is expected. A large, hot, linseed-meal 
poultice, over which a dessert-spoonful of laudanum 
has been sprinkled, or a large mustard-plaster, 
spread on the lower abdomen, will afford much 
relief. A hot brick or bottle of hot water wrapped 
in flannel, and applied to the small of the back, 
is often of great service. Rest in bed is always 
to be recommended. A tea-spoonful of sweet 
spirits of nitre will sometimes bring early relief. 

But if these simple means are not sufficient, it 
would be better to consult a physician. 

A common belief is that such troubles are cured 
by marriage. Sometimes they are, but we do not 
approve the remedy. The state of marriage should 

D 



50 THE MAIDEN. 

be entered upon in perfect health and full vigor. 
Upon it depends the health of future generations, 
and it were better for them did only those assume 
its bonds who are able to endow their children 
with sound physical frames. 

THE AGE OF NUBILITY. 

It does not follow, because a girl is capable of 
marriage, that she is fit for it. Science teaches us 
many valid objections to too early unions. It goes 
farther, and fixes a certain age at which it is wisest 
for woman to marry. This age is between twenty 
and twenty-five years. 

Anatomists have learned that after puberty the 
bones of a woman's body undergo important modi- 
fications to fit her for child-bearing. This requires 
time, and before twenty the process is not com- 
pleted. Until the woman is perfect herself, until 
her full stature and completed form are attained, 
she is not properly qualified to assist in perpetuating 
the species. 

We might urge that up to this moment neither 
does her self-knowledge qualify her to choose a 
life-companion, nor can her education be finished, 
nor is her experience sufficient for her to enter on 
the duties of a matron. But we do not appeal to 
these arguments. There are others still more 
forcible. If her own health, life, and good looks 
are of value to her, if she has any wish for healthy, 
sound-minded children, she will refrain from prema- 
ture nuptials. 

A too youthful wife finds marriage not a pleasure 
but a pain. Her nervous system is prostrated by 



WHEN TO MARRY. 5 I 

it ; she is more liable to weakness and diseases of 
the womb ; and if of a consumptive family, she 
runs great risk of finding that fatal malady mani- 
fest itself after a year or two of wedded life. It is 
very common for those who marry young to die 
young. 

From statistics which have been carefully com- 
piled, it is proven that the first labors of very 
young mothers are much more painful, tedious, and 
dangerous to life, than others. As wives, they are 
frequently visited either with absolute sterility, and 
all their lives must bear the reproach of barren 
women, or, what to many is hardly less distasteful, 
they -have an excessively numerous family. 

What adds to their sufferings in the latter event, 
is that the children of such marriages are rarely 
healthy. They are feeble, sickly, undersized, often 
with some fault of mind or body, which is a cross 
to them and their parents all their lives. They 
inherit more readily the defects of their ancestors, 
and, as a rule, die at earlier years than the progeny 
of better-timed unions. 

These considerations are formidable enough, it 
would seem, to prevent young girls from marrying, 
without the need of a law, as exists in some coun- 
tries. Moreover, they are not imaginary, but real, 
as many a woman finds out to her cost. 

The objections to marriage after the age of 
twenty-five are less cogent. They extend only to 
the woman herself. She should know that the first 
labors of wives over thirty are nearly twice as fatal 
as those between twenty and twenty-five. Un- 
doubtedly nature points to the period between the 
6 d % 



52 THE MAIDEN. 

twentieth and twenty-fifth year as the fittest one 
for marriage in the woman. 



LOVE. 

ITS POWER ON HUMANITY. 

LOVE, pure love, true love, what can we say of 
it ? The dream of youth ; the cherished reminis- 
cence of age ; celebrated in the songs of poets; 
that which impels the warrior to his most daring 
deeds ; which the inspired prophet chooses to typify 
the holiest sentiments, — what new thing is it pos- 
sible to say about this theme ? 

Think for a moment on the history or the litera- 
ture of the world. Ask the naturalist to reveal 
the mysteries of life ; let the mythologist explain 
the origin and meaning of all unrevealed religions ; 
look within at the promptings of your own spirit, 
and this whole life of ours will appear to you as 
one grand epithalamium. 

The profoundest of English poets has said — 

'All thoughts, all passions, all delights, 
Whatever stirs this mortal frame, 
All are but ministers of Love, 
And feed his sacred flame. ' 

That life which is devoid of love is incomplete, 
sterile, unsatisfactory. It fails of its chiefest end. 
Nature, in anger, blots it out sooner, and it passes 
like the shadow of a cloud, leaving no trace behind. 
Admirable as it may be in other respects, to # the 



THE WONDER, LOVE. 53 

eye of the statesman, the physician, the lover of his 
species, it remains but a fragment, a torso. 

Love is one thing to a woman, another to a man. 
To him, said Madame de Stael, it is an episode ; 
to her, it is the whole history of life. A thousand 
distractions divert man. Fame, riches, power, 
pleasure, all struggle in his bosom to displace the 
sentiment of love. They are its rivals, not rarely 
its masters. But woman knows no such distractions. 
One passion only sits enthroned in her bosom ; one 
only idol is enshrined in her heart, knowing no 
rival, no successor. This passion is love ! this idol 
is its object. 

This is not fancy, not rhetoric ; it is the language 
of cold and exact science, pronounced from the 
chair of history, from the bureau of the statistician, 
from the dissecting table of the anatomist. We 
shall gather up their well-weighed words, and pre- 
sent them, not as fancy sketches, but as facts. 

This deep, all-absorbing, single, wondrous love of 
woman, is something that man cannot understand. 
This sea of unfathomed depth is to him a mystery. 
The shallow mind sees of it nothing but the rippling 
waves, the unstable foam-crests dashing hither 
and thither, the playful ripples of the surface, and, 
blind to the still and measureless waters beneath, 
calls woman capricious, uncertain, — vcirium et mu- 
tabile. But the thinker and seer, undeceived by 
such externals, knows that beneath this seeming 
change is stability unequalled in the stronger sex, 
a power of will to which man is a stranger, a devo- 
tion and purpose which strike him with undefined 
awe. 



54 THE MA ID EX. 

Therefore, in the myths and legends which the 
early races framed to express their notions of divine 
things,— the Fates, who spin and snip the thread of 
life ; the Norns, who 

Lay down laws, 

And select life 

For the children of time— 

The destinies of men, — 

are always females. The seeresses and interpreters 
of oracles — those who, like the witch of Endor, 
could summon from the grave the shades of the 
departed — were women. 

Therefore, also, modern infidelity, going back, as 
it ever does, to the ignorance of the past, and hold- 
ing it up as something new, makes woman the only 
deity. Comte and his disciples, having reasoned 
away all gods, angels, and spirits, and unable to 
still the craving for something to adore, agree to 
meet once a week to worship — woman. The French 
revolutionists, having shut up the churches and 
abolished God by a decree of the Convention, set 
up in His stead — a woman. 

We could never exhaust this phase of world-his- 
tory. Everywhere we see the unexpected hand of 
Love moulding, fashioning all things. The for- 
tunes of the individual, the fate of nations, the 
destinies of races, are guided by this invisible thread. 
Let us push our inquiries as to the nature of this 
all-powerful agent. 

WHAT IS LOVE? 

It has a divided nature. As we have an im- 
mortal soul, but a body of clay ; as the plant roots 



LOVE AND MARRIAGE. 55 

itself in decaying earth, but spreads its flowers in 
glorious sunlight, — so love has a physiological and 
a moral nature. It is rooted in that unconscious 
law of life which bids us perpetuate our kind ; which 
guards over the conservation of life ; which enforces, 
with ceaseless admonition, that first precept which 
God gave to man before the gates of Eden had 
been closed upon him : ' Be thou fruitful, and mul- 
tiply, and replenish the earth.' Nothing but a 
spurious delicacy, or an ignorance of facts, can pre- 
vent our full recognition that love looks to mar- 
riage, and marriage to offspring, as a natural 
sequence. 

Do we ask proofs of this ? We have them in 
abundance. Those unfortunate beings who are 
chosen by Oriental custom to guard the seraglios 
undergo a mutilation which disqualifies them from 
becoming parents. Soon all traces of passion, all 
regard for the other sex, all sentiments of love, 
totally disappear. The records of medicine contain 
not a few cases where disease had rendered it neces- 
sary to remove the ovaries from women. At once 
a change took place in voice, appearance, and 
mind. They spoke like men, a slender beard com- 
menced on their faces, a masculine manner was 
conspicuous in all their motions, and every thought 
of sexual love passed away for ever. These are 
the results in every case. What do they signify ? 
Undoubtedly that the passion of love is dependent 
upon the capacity of having offspring, and that such 
was the intention of Nature in implanting in our 
bosom this all-powerful sentiment. 

But this is not all. Nature, as beneficent to 



56 THE MAIDEN. 

those who obey her precepts as she is merciless to 
those who disregard them, has added to this senti- 
ment of love a physical pleasure in its gratification, 
— an honourable and proper pleasure, which none 
but the hypocrite or the ascetic will affect to con- 
temn, none but the coarse or the lewd will regard 
as the object of love. There is, indeed, a passion 
which is the love of the body. We call it by its 
proper name of lust. There is another emotion, 
for which the rich tongue of the ancient Greeks had 
a word, to which we have nothing to correspond. 
Call it, if you will, Platonic love, and define it to 
be an exalted friendship. But understand that 
neither the one nor the other is love, in the true 
sense of the word, and that both are inferior to it. 

Does the father, watching, with moistened eyes, 
his child at its mother's breast ; does the husband, 
bending with solicitude over the sick-bed of his 
wife ; does the wife, clinging to her husband through 
evil report and good report, through broken for- 
tunes and failing health, indicate no loftier emotion 
than hist, no warmer sentiment than friendship? 
What ignorance, what perversity is so gross as not 
to perceive something here nobler than either? 
Do you say that such scenes are, alas, rare ? We 
deny it. We see them daily in the streets ; we 
meet them daily in our rounds. Admitted, by our 
calling, to the sacred precincts of many houses in 
the trying hours of sickness and death, we speak 
advisedly, and know that this is the prevailing 
meaning of love in domestic life. 

A warm, rich affection blesses the one who gives 
and the one who receives. Character developes 



THE FATE OF THE UNMARRIED. 5/ 

under it as the plant beneath the sunlight. Happi- 
ness is an unknown word without it. Love and 
marriage are the only normal conditions of life. 
Without them, both man and woman for ever miss 
the best part of themselves. They suffer more, 
they sin more, they perish sooner. These are not 
hasty assertions. As a social law, let it be well 
understood that science pronounces that 

LOVE IS A NECESSITY. 

The single life is forced upon many of both 
sexes, in our present social condition. Many 
choose it from motives of economy, from timidity, 
or as a religious step, pleasing to God. ' The latter 
is a notion which probably arose from a belief that, 
somehow, celibacy, strictly observed, means chas- 
tity. It simply means continence. The chastest 
persons have been, and are, not the virgins and 
celibates, but the married. When this truth is 
known better, we shall have fewer sects and more 
religion. 

We know women who refrain from marrying to 
keep out of trouble. The old saying is, that every 
sigh drives a nail in one's coffin. They are not 
going to worry themselves to death bearing children 
and nursing them! It is too great a risk, too much 
suffering. How often have we been told this ! Yet 
how false the reasoning is ! Very carefully pre- 
pared statistics show that between the ages of 
twenty and forty-five years, more unmarried women 
die than married, and few instances of remarkable 
longevity in an old maid are known. The celebrated 
Dr. Hufeland, therefore, in his treatise on the Art 



58 THE MAIDEN. 

of Prolonging Life, lays it down as a rule, that to 
attain a great age, one must be married. 

As for happiness, those who think they can best 
attain it outside the gentle yoke of matrimony are 
quite as wide of the mark. Their selfish and soli- 
tary pleasures do not gratify them. With all the 
resources of clubs, billiard-rooms, saloons, narcotics, 
and stimulants, single men make but a mock show 
of satisfaction. At heart every one of them envies 
his married friends. How much more monotonous 
and more readily exhausted are the resources of 
woman's single life ! No matter what ' sphere ' she 
is in, no matter in what ' circle ' she moves, no 
matter what* ' mission ' she invents, it will soon pall 
on her. Would you see the result ? We invoke 
once more those dry volumes, full of lines and 
figures, on vital statistics. Stupid as they look, 
they are full of the strangest stories ; and what is 
more, the stories are all true. Some of them are 
sad stories, and this is one of the saddest : Of 
those unfortunates who, out of despair and disgust 
of the world, jump from bridges, or take arsenic, 
or hang themselves, or in other ways rush unbidden 
and unprepared before the great Judge of all, 
nearly two-thirds are unmarried, and in some years 
nearly three-fourths. And of those other sad cases 
— dead, yet living — who people the madhouses and 
asylums, what of them ? Driven crazy by their 
brutal husbands, do you suggest ? Not at all ! In 
France, Bavaria, Prussia, Hanover, four out of 
every five are unmarried ; and throughout the civi- 
lised world there are everywhere three or four 
single to one married woman in the establishments 



FAMOUS WOMEN, MAIDS OR WIVES. 59 

for the insane, in proportion to the whole number 
of the two classes above twenty-one years of age. 

Other women decline to marry because they 
have, forsooth, a ' life work ' to accomplish. Some 
great project fills their mind. Perchance they emu- 
late Madame de Stael, and would electrify the 
country by their novel views in politics ; or they 
have a literary vein they fain would exploit ; or 
they feel called upon to teach the freedmen, or to 
keep their position as leaders of fashion. A husband 
would trammel them. If they did marry, they 
would take the very foolish advice of a contem- 
porary, and go through life with an indignant pro- 
test at its littleness. Let such women know that 
they underrate the married state, its powers and its 
opportunities. There are no loftier missions than 
can there be carried out, no nobler games than can 
there be played. When we think of these objec- 
tions, coming, as they have to us, from high-spirited, 
earnest girls, the queens of their sex, our memory 
runs back to the famous women of history, the 
brightest jewels in the coronet of time, and we find 
as many, ay, more, married women than single who 
pursued to their ends mighty achievements. 

If you speak of Judith and Joan of Arc, who 
delivered their fatherlands from the enemy by a 
daring no man can equal, we shall recall the peace- 
ful victories of her, wife of the barbarian Chlodwig, 
who taught the rude Franks the mild religion of 
Nazareth, and of her who extended from Byzantium 
the holy symbol of the cross over the wilds of 
Russia. The really great women of this age, are 
they mostly married or single ? They are mostly 



60 THE MAIDEN. 

married, and they are good wives and tender 
mothers. 

What we have just written, we read to an amiable 
woman. 

1 But,' she exclaimed, ' what have you to say to 
her whom high duties or a hard fate condemns to a 
single life, and to the name of the old maid ? - 

Alas ! what can we say to such ? We feel that 

* Earthlier happy is the rose distilled, 
Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn, 
Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness. ' 

Yet there is ever a blessing in store for those who 
suffer here, and the hope of the future must teach 
them to bear the present. 

LOVE IS ETERNAL. 

We have said love is a necessity in the life of 
either man or woman to complete their nature. Its 
effects, therefore, are eternal. We do not intend 
this as a figure of speech. It is a sober statement 
of physiology. 

From the day of marriage the woman undergoes 
a change in her whole structure. She is similar to 
her former self, but not the same. It is often 
noticed that the children of a woman in her second 
marriage bear a marked resemblance to her first 
husband. In the inferior races and lower animals 
this obscure metamorphosis is still more apparent. 
A negress who has borne her first child to a white 
man, will ever after have children of a color lighter 
than her own. Count Strzelewski, in his Travels in 
Australia, narrates this curious circumstance : A 



LOVE'S BRAADS. 6l 

native woman who has once had offspring by a white 
man, can never more have children by a male of 
her own race. Dr. Darwin relates that a male 
zebra was once brought to England, and a hybrid 
race, marked by the zebra's stripes, was produced 
from certain mares. Always after, the colts of 
those mares bore the marks of the zebra on their 
skins. In some way the female is profoundly altered 
throughout her whole formation, and entirely inde- 
pendent of her will, by the act of marriage, and the 
alteration is never effaced. 

If the body is thus influenced, shall not the far 
more susceptible mind and spirit be equally im- 
pressed ? 

Another common observation supports what we 
say, and extends it farther. Not the woman alone, 
— the man also undergoes a change, and loses a 
portion of his personality in his mate. They two 
are one, not merely in a moral sense. "We con- 
stantly notice a decided resemblance in old couples 
who have passed, say, two score years together. 
They have grown to look alike in form, feature, 
and expression. That for so long a time they have 
breathed the same air, eaten the same fare, and been 
subjected to the same surroundings, explains this to 
some extent. But the greater part of the change 
flows from mental sources. They have laughed and 
wept together; they have shared the same joys and 
pleasures ; a smile or a tear on the face of one 
has evoked a corresponding emotion and expression 
on the face of the other. Their copartnership has 
become a unity. Even without speaking, they 
sympathize. Their souls are constantly en rapport. 



62 THE MAIDEN. 

The man is as different as the woman from his 
former self. 

OF SECOND MARRIAGES. 

Science, therefore, seems to say to woman, ' Your 
first husband is your eternal husband.' How, then, 
about second marriages ? Are we to say that they 
are not advisable ? 

Let us not answer hastily. It is yet to be seen 
whether ill-assorted marriages produce those im- 
pressions we have mentioned. They may, indeed, 
on the body, while the mind is free. One must re- 
member, also, that the exigencies of social life must 
be consulted. If a woman cannot love two men 
equally, — and she cannot, — other motives, worthy 
of all respect, justify her in entering the marriage 
life a second time. Then, the higher refinements 
of the emotions are not given to all alike, nor do 
they come at the same age to all. True love may 
first dawn upon a woman after one or two husbands 
have left her a widow. Orphan children, widow- 
hood, want of property, or the care of property, — 
these are sad afflictions to the lonely woman. Do 
not blame her if she accepts a husband as a guardian, 
a protector, whom she can no longer receive to her 
arms as a lover. She is right. 

We cherish the memory of a lady of strong cha- 
racter, who died past eighty. She had survived 
three husbands. ' The first,' she said, ' I married 
for love, the second for position, the third for friend- 
ship. I was happy with them all.' But when, in 
her mortal illness, this venerable friend sank into 
the delirium which preceded death, she constantly 



SEPARATION AND DIVORCE. 63 

called out the name of her first husband only. More 
than half a century had not effaced the memory 
of those few years of early love. This is fidelity 
indeed. 

OF DIVORCE. 

He of Nazareth laid down the law that whoever 
puts away his wife for any cause except adultery, 
and marries again, commits adultery ; and that 
whatever woman puts away her husband for any 
cause save adultery, and marries again, herself 
commits adultery. 

This has been found a hard saying. - 

John Milton wrote a book to show that the Law- 
giver did not mean what He said, but something 
quite different. Modern sects, calling themselves 
Christians, after this Lawgiver, dodge the difficulty, 
and refer it to, State legislatures. State legislatures, 
not troubling themselves at all about any previous 
law or lawgiver, allow dozens of causes — scores of 
them — as perfectly valid to put asunder those whom 
God has joined together. 

Science, which never finds occasion to disagree 
with that 1 Lawgiver of Nazareth, here makes His 
words her own. 

Whether we look at it as a question in social life, 
in morals, or in physiology, the American plan of 
granting absolute divorces is dangerous, and de- 
structive to what is best in life. It leads to hasty, 
ill-assorted matches, to an unwillingness to yield to 
each other's peculiarities, to a weakening of the 
family ties, to a lax morality. Carry it a trifle 
farther than it now is in some of the Western 

6 



64 THE MAIDEN. 

States, and marriage will lose all its sacredness, 
and degenerate into a physical union, not nobler 
than the crossing of flies in the air. 

Separation of bed and board should always be 
provided for by law ; and whether single, married, 
or separated, the woman should retain entire control 
of her own property. But in the eyes of God and 
nature, a woman or a man with two faithful spouses 
living, to each of whom an eternal fidelity has been 
plighted, is a monster. 

OF A PLURALITY OF WIVES OR HUSBANDS. 

What has been said of divorce applies with ten- 
fold force to the custom of a woman living as wife 
to several men, or of a man as husband to several 
women. We should not speak of these customs, 
but that we know both exist in America, not among 
the notoriously wicked, but among those who claim 
to be the peculiarly good — the very elect of God. 
They prevail, not as lustful excesses, but as reli- 
gious observances. 

It is worth while to say that such practices lead 
to physical degradation. The woman who acknow- 
ledges more than one husband is generally sterile ; 
the man who has several wives has usually a weakly 
offspring, principally males. Nature attempts to 
check polygamy by reducing the number of fe- 
males, and failing in this, by enervating the whole 
stock. The Mormons of Utah would soon sink into 
a state of Asiatic effeminacy were they left to 
themselves. 



WHAT COURTSHIP MEANS. 65 



COURTSHIP. 

A wise provision of nature ordains that woman 
shall be sought. She flees, and man pursues. The 
folly of modern reformers, who would annul this 
provision, is evident. Were it done away with, 
man, ever prone to yield to woman's solicitations, 
and then most prone when yielding is most dan- 
gerous, would fritter away his powers at an early 
age, and those very impulses which nature has 
given to perpetuate the race would bring about its 
destruction. 

To prevent such a disaster, woman is endowed 
with a sense of shame, an invincible modesty, her 
greatest protection, and her greatest charm. Let 
her never forget it, never disregard it ; for without 
it she becomes the scorn of her own sex and the 
jest of the other. 

The urgency of man and the timidity of woman 
are tempered by the period of courtship. 

This, as it exists in the United States, is some- 
thing almost peculiar to Americans. On the con- 
tinent of Europe, girls are shut up in convents or 
in seminaries, or are kept strictly under the eyes of 
their parents until marriage, or, at any rate, be- 
trothal. The liberty usual in America is something 
unheard-of and inconceivable there. In Spain a 
duenna, in France some aunt or elderly cousin, in 
Germany some similar person, makes it her busi- 
ness to be present at every interview which a you ng 
lady has with an admirer. He never dreams of 
walking, driving, or going out of an evening" with 
her alone. It is taken for granted that, should he 



66 THE MAIDEN. 

invite her for such a purpose, the mother or aunt 
is included in the party. They would look on 
the innocent freedom of American girls as simply 
scandalous. 

We have had opportunities to see society in these 
various countries, and have failed to perceive that 
the morality of either sex is at all superior to what 
it is with us, while the effect of cloister-like educa- 
tion on young women is to weaken their self-reliance, 
and often prepare them for greater extravagances 
when marriage gives them liberty. 

With us, the young woman is free until her wed- 
ding day. After that epoch, she looks forward to 
withdrawing more or less from society, and con- 
fining her thoughts to family matters. In France, 
Spain, or Italy, in the wealthier classes, precisely 
the contrary is the rule. Marriage brings deliver- 
ance from an irksome espionage and numberless 
fetters ; it is the avenue to a life in public and inde- 
pendent action. How injurious to domestic happi- 
ness this is, can readily be imagined. 

It is true that the liberty of American girls oc- 
casionally leads to improprieties. But, except in 
certain great cities, such instances are rare. The 
safeguards of virtue are knowledge and self-com- 
mand, not duennas and jalousies. Let mothers 
properly instruct their daughters, and they need 
have no apprehension about their conduct. 

The period of courtship is one full of importance. 
A young woman of unripe experience must decide, 
from what she can see of a man during the inter- 
course of a few months, whether he will suit her 
for a life-companion. She has no knowledge of 



COURTSHIP. 6j 

human nature ; and what would it avail her if she 
had, when at such a time a suitor is careful only to 
show his eligible traits ? ' Go a-courting,' said old 
Dr. Franklin, in his homely language, ' in your 
everyday clothes.' Not one man out of a thousand 
is honest enough to take his advice. 

It is useless for her to ask aid of another. She 
must judge for herself. What, then, is she to do ? 

There is a mysterious instinct in a pure-minded 
woman which is beyond all analysis, — a tact which 
men do not possess, and do not readily believe in. 
At such a crisis this instinct saves her. She feels in 
a moment the presence of a base, unworthy nature. 
An unconscious repulsion is manifest in her eye, her 
voice. Where a suitor is not a man of low motive, 
but merely quite incongruous in temper and dis- 
position, this same instinct acts, and the man, 
without being able to say just why, feels that he is 
laboring in vain. If he blindly insists in his 
wooing, he has no one to chide but himself when 
he is finally discarded. 

But if the man is worthy, and suitable, does this 
blessed instinct whisper the happy news with like 
promptness to the maiden's soul ? Ah ! that raises 
another issue. It brings us face to face with that 
difficult question of 

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. 

Jung Stilling, a German author of note, a reli- 
gious enthusiast, and full of queer fancies, was, 
when young, a tutor in a private family. On one occa- 
sion his employer took him to a strange house, and 
6* E 2 



68 THE MAIDEN. 

introduced him to a roomful of company. Stilling 
had not contemplated marriage ; but, in the com- 
pany, he saw, for the first time, a young woman 
who he felt was his destined wife. Walking across 
the room, he addressed her with the utmost simpli- 
city, telling her that an inward monitor advised him 
that she, of all womankind, was his predestined 
helpmeet. She blushed, was confused, but presently 
confessed that she had experienced the same con- 
viction on first beholding him. They married, and 
the most curious part of the tale remains to tell, — 
it is, that they proved a happy, well-matched couple. 

We do not advise others to follow their example. 
Not many souls are capable of such reciprocity. 
Choosing an associate for life is too serious a busi- 
ness to be made the affair of a moment. Reason, 
reflection, thought, prayer, — these are aids in such 
a momentous question not to be lightly thrown 
aside. Many a passing fancy, many an evanescent 
preference, catches for a moment the new-fledged 
affections. But for the long and tedious journey of 
life we want a love rooted in knowledge. 

We are not blind to the fact, that often from the 
first interview the maiden feels an undefined spell 
thrown around her by him who will become her 
husband. She feels differently in his presence ; she 
watches him with other eyes than she has for the 
rest of men. She renders no account to herself of 
this emotion ; she attempts no analysis of it ; she 
does not acknowledge to herself that it exists. No 
matter. Sooner or later, if true to herself, she will 
learn what it is, and it will be a guide in that 
moment, looked forward to with mingled hopes and 



CHOOSING A HUSBAND. 69 

fears, when she is asked to decide on the destiny, 
the temporal and eternal destiny, of two human lives. 
That she may then decide aright, and live free 
from the regrets of a false step at this crisis of life, 
we shall now rehearse what medical science has to 
say about 

HOW TO CHOOSE A HUSBAND. 

* Choose well. Your choice is 
Brief, and yet endless.' 

Woman holds as an inalienable right, in this 
country, the privilege of choice. It is not left to 
notaries, or parents, to select for her, as is the cus- 
tom in some other parts of the world. 

First comes the question of relationship. A 
school-girl is apt to see more of her cousins than of 
other young men. Often some of them seek at an 
early hour to institute a far closer tie than that of 
blood. Is she wise to accept it ? 

SHALL COUSINS MARRY? 

Hardly any point has been more warmly debated 
by medical men. It has been said that in such 
marriages the woman is more apt to be sterile ; that 
if she have children, they are peculiarly liable to be 
born with some defect of body or mind, — deafness, 
blindness, idiocy, or lameness ; that they die early ; 
and that they are subject, beyond others, to fatal 
hereditary diseases, as cancer, consumption, scro- 
fula, etc. 

An ardent physician persuaded himself so tho- 
roughly of these evils resulting from 



?0 THE MAIDEN. 

of relatives, that he induced the Legislature of 
Kentucky to pass a law prohibiting it within 
certain degrees of consanguinity. Many a married 
couple have been rendered miserable by the in- 
formation that they had unwittingly violated one 
of nature's most positive laws. Though their chil- 
dren may be numerous and blooming, they live 
in constant dread of some terrible outbreak of 
disease. Many a young and loving couple have 
sadly severed an engagement, which would have 
been a prelude to a happy marriage, when they 
were informed of these disastrous results. 

For all such we have a word of consolation. We 
speak it authoritatively, and not without a full 
knowledge of the responsibility we assume. 

The fear of marrying a cousin, even a first cousin, 
is entirely groundless, provided there is no decided 
hereditary taint in the family. And when such 
hereditary taint does exist, the danger is not greater 
than in marrying into any other family where it is 
also found. On the contrary, a German author has 
urged the propriety of such unions, where the 
family has traits of mental or physical excellence, 
as a means of preserving and developing them. 

So far as sterility is concerned, an examination of 
records shows, that whereas in the average of unions 
one woman in eight is barren, in those between rela- 
tives but one in ten is so. And as for the early deaths 
of children, while, on an average, fifteen children in 
a hundred die under seven years, in the families of 
nearly-related parents but twelve in a hundred is 
the mortality. 

The investigations about idiotic and defective 



MISCONGENA TION. J I 

children are by no means satisfactory, and are con- 
sidered by some of the most careful writers as not 
at all proving a greater tendency to such misfor- 
tunes in the offspring of cousins. Among a thou- 
sand idiotic children recently examined in Paris, 
not one was descended from a healthy consan- 
guinity. 

But as few families are wholly without some 
lurking predisposition to disease, it is not well, as a 
rule, to run the risk of developing this by too re- 
peated unions. Stock-breeders find that the best 
specimens of the lower animals are produced by 
crossing nearly-related individuals a certain number 
of times ; but that, carried beyond this, such unions 
lead to degeneracy and sterility. Such, also, has 
been the experience of many human families. 

How slight a cause even of that most insidious 
disease, consumption, such marriages are, may be 
judged from the fact, that of a thousand cases 
inquired into by Dr. Edward Smith, in only six 
was there consanguinity of parents. 

THE MIXTURE OF RACES. 

Mankind, say the school geographies, is divided 
into five races, each distinguished by its own color. 
They are the white, the black, the red, the yellow, 
and the brown races. In this country, practically, 
we have to do with but the white and black races ; 
and the question is constantly asked, Shall we 
approve of marriages between them ? Shall a white 
woman choose a black man to be her husband ? 

We are at the more pains to answer this, because 
recently a writer — and this writer a woman, and 



72 THE MAIDEN. 

this woman one of the most widely known in our 
land — has written a novel intended to advocate 
the affirmative of this question. Moreover, it is 
constantly mooted in certain political circles, and 
is one of the social problems of the day. 

The very fact that it is so much discussed, shows 
that such a union runs counter to a strong preju- 
dice. Such aversions are often voices of nature, 
acting as warnings against acts injurious to the 
species. In this instance it is not of modern origin, 
created by peculiar institutions. Three centuries 
ago, Shakspeare, who had probably never seen a 
score of negroes in his life, with the divination of 
genius, felt the repugnance which a refined woman 
would feel to accepting one as her husband. The 
plot of one of his plays turns on it. He makes Iago 
say of Desdemona : 

' Not to affect many proposed matches 
Of her own clime, complexion, and degree ; 
Whereto, we see, in all things nature tends : 
Foh ! one may smell in such a will most rank, 
Foul disproportions, thoughts unnatural. ' 

It is, indeed, 'nature erring from itself which 
prompts to these marriages. They are not sterile, 
but the children are sickly and short-lived. Very 
few mulattoes reach an old age. 

Then it is well known that the black race cannot 
survive a northern climate. Dr. Snow; of Provi- 
dence, Rhode Island, who has given great attention 
to the study of statistics, says emphatically that, in 
New England, the colored population inevitably 
perish in a few generations, if left to themselves. 



INTERNATIONAL MARRIAGES. 73 

This debility no woman should wish to give to her 
children. 

A mental inferiority is likewise apparent. Friends 
of the negro are ready to confess this, but attribute 
it to his long and recent period of servitude. We 
deal with facts only. The inferiority is there, what- 
ever be its cause ; and she who would willingly 
curse her offspring with it, manifests indeed 
1 thoughts unnatural.' 

The children born of a union of the black and 
red race, negroes and Indians, are, on the contrary, 
remarkable for their physical vigor and mental 
acuteness ; though, of course, the latter is limited to 
the demands of a semi-barbarous life. 

SHOULD NATIVE WOMEN MARRY FOREIGNERS ? 

When we narrow the question of race to that of 
nationality, entirely new elements come in. 

In speaking of the intermarriage of relatives, we 
showed that a certain number of such unions in 
healthy stocks was advantageous rather than other- 
wise, but that too many of them lead to deteriora- 
tion. This law can be applied to nations. His- 
torians have often observed that the most powerful 
states of the world arose from an amalgamation of 
different tribes. Rome, Greece, England, are 
examples of this. On the other hand, France, 
Russia, Spain, China, Persia, which have suffered 
no such crosses of blood, are either stationary, or 
depend for their progress on foreigners. 

Physicians have contributed other curious testi- 
mony on this point, the bearing of which they them- 
selves have not understood. Marriages between 



74 THE MAIDEN. 

nationalities of the same race are more fertile, and 
the children more vigorous, than those between 
descendants of the same nation. For instance, it 
has been proved that if two descendants of the 'Pil- 
grim Fathers' in Massachusetts marry, they will 
probably have but three children ; while, if one of 
them marries a foreigner, the children will number 
five or six. 

So it is well ascertained that in the old and 
stationary communes of France, where the same 
families have possessed their small farms for gene- 
ration after generation, the marriages have become 
gradually less and less productive, until it has seri- 
ously interfered with the quota those districts send 
to the army. 

American women have suffered many hard words 
because they do not have more children. Several 
New England writers have accused them of very 
bad practices, which we shall mention hereafter. 
But the effect of the law of production just now laid 
down has been quite overlooked. 

As it is best that there should he four or five 
children in a family in ordinary circumstances, the 
union of American and foreign blood is very desir- 
able. We need to fuse in one the diverse colonies 
of the white race annually reaching our shores. 
A century should efface every trace of the German, 
the Irish, the Frenchman, the English, the Norwe- 
gian, and leave nothing but the American. To 
bring about this happy result, free intermarriage 
should be furthered in every possible way. 



WHEN MEN SHOULD MARRY. ?$ 

THE AGE OF THE HUSBAND. 

The epoch of puberty comes to a boy at about 
the same age as it does to a girl, — fourteen or fifteen 
years. And an even greater period passes between 
this epoch and the age it is proper for a man to 
marry,— his age of nubility. . • 

Not only has he a more complete education to 
obtain, not only a profession or trade to learn, and 
some property to accumulate, some position to 
acquire, ere he is ready to take a wife, but his 
physical powers ripen more slowly than those of 
woman. He is more tardy in completing his growth, 
and early indulgence more readily saps his consti- 
tution. 

We have placed the best age for woman to marry 
between twenty and twenty-five years ; for similar 
reasons, man is best qualified to become a husband 
between twenty-three and thirty-three years. 

Previous to the twenty-third year, many a man is 
incapable of producing healthy children. If he does 
not destroy his health by premature indulgence, 
he may destroy his happiness by witnessing his 
children a prey to debility and deformity. An old 
German proverb says, ' Give a boy a wife, and a 
child a bird, and death will soon knock at the door.' 
Even an author so old as Aristotle warns youno- 
men against early marriage, under penalty of disease 
and puny offspring. 

From the age of thirty-three to fifty years, men 
who carefully observe the laws of health do not feel 
any weight of years. Nevertheless, they are past 
their prime. Then, also, with advancing years, the 



j6 THE MAIDEN. 

chances of life diminish, and the probability in- 
creases that they will leave a young family with no 
natural protector. The half-century once turned, 
their vigor rapidly diminishes. The marriages they 
then contract are either sterile, or yield but few 
and sickly children. Many an old man has 
shortened his life by late nuptials-; and the records 
of medicine contain accounts of several who 
perished on the very night of marriage. 

The relative age of man and wife is next to be 
considered. Nature fits woman earlier for mar- 
riage, and hints thereby that she should, as a rule, 
be younger than her husband. So, too, the bard of 
nature speaks : 

' Let still the woman take 
An elder than herself; so wears she to him, 
So sways she level in her husband's heart.' 

The woman who risks her happiness with a man 
many years younger than herself, violates a pre- 
cept of life ; and when her husband grows indif- 
ferent, or taunts her with her years, or seeks com- 
panions of more suitable age, she is reaping a 
harvest sown by her own hand. 

So commonly do such matches turn out badly, 
that in 1828 the kingdom of Wiirtemberg pro- 
hibited unions where the woman was more than 
twelve years the senior, except by special dispen- 
sation. 

After forty-five years, most women cannot hope 
for children. A marriage subsequent to this period 
can at best be regarded as a close friendship. Mar- 
riage in its full meaning has no longer an existence. 



TEMPERAMENTS. 77 

The relative age of man and wife has another 
influence, and quite a curious one. It influences 
the sex of the children. But this point we reserve 
for discussion on a later page. 

The folly of joining a young girl to an old man 
is happily not so common in America as in Europe. 
It would be hard to devise any step more certain 
to bring the laws of nature and morality into con- 
flict. 

' What can a young lassie do wi' an auld man ? ' 

What advice can we give to a woman who bar- 
ters her youthful charms for the fortune of an aged 
husband ? Shall we be cynical enough to agree 
with ' auld Auntie Katie ?' 

' My auld Auntie Katie upon me takes pity ; 

I'll do my endeavor to follow her plan : 
I'll cross him, and rack him, until I heart-break him, 
And then his auld brass will buy me a new pan.' 

No ! She has willingly accepted a responsibility. 
It is her duty to bear it loyally, faithfully, uncom- 
plainingly to the end. 

Let us sum up with the maxim, that the husband 
should be the senior, but that the difference of age 
should not be more than ten years. 

WHAT SHOULD BE HIS TEMPERAMENT? 

It is often hard to make out what doctors mean 
by temperaments. It is supposed that our mental 
and physical characters depend somehow on the 
predominance of some organ or system which con- 



7 8 THE MAIDEN. 

trols the rest. Thus a person who is nervous, quick, 
sensitive to impressions, is said to have a nervous 
temperament ; one who is stout, full-blooded, red- 
faced, has a sanguine temperament ; a thin, dark- 
featured, reticent person, is of a bilious tempera- 
ment ; while a pale, fat, sluggish nature, is called 
phlegmatic, or lymphatic. 

In a general way these distinctions are valuable, 
but they will not bear very exact applications. 
They reveal in outline the constitution of mind and 
body ; and what is to our present purpose, they are 
of more than usual importance in the question of 
selecting a husband. 

Nature, hating incongruity, yet loves variety. 
She preserves the limits of species, but within those 
limits she seeks fidelity to one type. Therefore it 
is that in marriage a person inclines strongly to 
one of a different temperament — to a person quite 
unlike himself. 

So true is this, that a Frenchman of genius, Ber- 
nardin de St. Pierre, vouches for this anecdote of 
himself. He was in a strange city, visiting a friend 
whom he had not seen for years. The friend's 
sister was of that age when women are most sus- 
ceptible. She was tall, a blonde, deliberate in 
motion, with blue eyes and fair hair. In a jesting 
way, St. Pierre, who had never seen her before, and 
knew nothing of her personal life, said, — 

' Mademoiselle, you have many admirers. Shall 
I describe him on whom you look with most 
favor ? ' 

The lady challenged him to do so. 

' He is short in stature, of dark complexion, dark 



THE CURSE OF LEWDNESS. 79 

hair and eyes, slight in figure, active and nervous 
in all his movements.' 

The lady blushed to her eyes, and cast a glance 
of anger at her brother, who, she thought, had be- 
trayed her secret. But no ! St. Pierre's only in- 
formant was his deep knowledge of the human 
heart. 

This instinct is founded upon the truth that the 
perfect temperament is that happily balanced one 
which holds all the organs in equilibrium, — in 
which no one rules, where all are developed in pro- 
portion. Nature ever strives to realize this ideal. 
She instils in the nervous temperament a prefer- 
ence for the lymphatic ; in the sanguine, a liking 
for the bilious constitution. The offspring should 
combine the excellencies of both, the defects of 
neither. We do well to heed her admonitions here, 
and to bear in mind that those matches which com- 
bine opposite temperaments, are, as a rule, the 
most fortunate. 

THE MORAL AND MENTAL CHARACTER. 

Very few words are necessary here. We have 
already said we speak as physicians, not as moral- 
ists. But there are some false and dangerous 
ideas abroad, which it is our duty as physicians to 
combat. 

None is more false, none more dangerous, than 
that embodied in the proverb, ' A reformed rake 
makes the best husband.' What is a rake ? A 
man who has deceived and destroyed trusting 
virtue, — a man who has entered the service of the 
devil to undermine and poison that happiness in 



80 THE MAIDEN. 

marriage, which all religion and science are at such 
pains to cultivate. We know him well in our capa- 
city as physicians. He comes to us constantly the 
prey to loathsome diseases, the results of his vicious 
life ; which diseases he will communicate to his 
wife, for they are contagious, and to his children, 
for they are hereditary ; and which no reform can 
'purge from his system, for they are ineradicable. 

Is this the man a pure woman should take to her 
arms ? Here repentance avails nothing. We have 
witnessed the agony unspeakable which over- 
whelmed a father wljen he saw his children suffer- 
ing under horrible and disgusting diseases, the 
penalty of his early sins. 

Very few men of profligate lives escape these 
diseases. They are alarmingly prevalent among 
the 'fast' youths of our cities. And some* forms 
of them are incurable by any effort of skill. Even 
the approach of such men should be shunned, — 
their company avoided. 

A physician in central Pennsylvania lately had 
this experience : A young lady of unblemished 
character asked .his advice for a troublesome affec- 
tion of the skin. He examined it, and to his horror 
recognised a form of one of the loathsome diseases 
which curse only the vilest or the most unfortunate 
of her sex. Yet he could not suspect this girl. 
On inquiry, he found that she had a small but 
painful sore on her lip, which she first noticed a 
few days after being at a picnic with a young man. 
Just as he was bidding her good-night, he had 
kissed her on the lips. 

At once everything was clear. This young man 



WORDS OF WARNING. 8 1 

was a patient of the physician. He was a victim 
to this vile disease, and even his kiss was enough 
to convey it. 

The history of the sixteenth century contains 
the account of an Italian duke, who on one occa- 
sion was forced by his ruler to reconcile himself 
with an enemy. Knowing he could not escape 
obedience, he protested the most cheerful willing- 
ness, and in the presence of the king embraced his 
enemy, and even kissed him on the lips. It was 
but another means of satisfying his hatred. For he 
well knew that his kiss would taint his enemy's 
blood with the same poison that was undermining 
his own life. 

How cautious, therefore, should a woman bt in 
granting the most innocent liberties ! I^ow soli- 
citous should she be to associate with the purest 
men ! 

Would that we could say that these dangerous and 
loathsome diseases are rare ! But, alas ! daily pro- 
fessional experience forbids us to offer this consola- 
tion. Every physician in our large cities, and even 
in smaller towns, knows that they are fearfully pre- 
valent. 

We have been consulted by wives, pure, innocent 
women, for complaints which they themselves, and 
sometimes their children, suffered from, the nature 
of which we dared not tell them, but which pointed 
with fatal finger to the unfaithfulness of the hus- 
band. How utterly was their domestic happiness 
wrecked when they discovered the cause of their 
constant ill-health ! 

Nor are such occurrences confined to the humbler 

F 



82 THE MAIDEN. 

walks of life. There, perhaps, less than in any 
other do they occur. It is in the wealthy, the 
luxurious, the self-indulgent class that they are 
found. 

Are we asked how such a dreadful fate can be 
averted ? 

There are, indeed, certain signs and marks which 
such diseases leave with which physicians are con- 
versant. As if nature intended them as warnings, 
they are imprinted on the most visible and public 
parts of the body. The skin, the hair, the nose, 
the voice, the lines on the face, often divulge to the 
trained observer, more indubitably than the confes- 
sional, a lewd and sensual life. 

Such signs, however, can only be properly esti- 
mated by the medical counsellor, and it would be 
useless to rehearse them here. Those women who 
would have a sure guide in choosing a man to be 
their husband, have they not Moses and the pro- 
phets ? What is more, have they not Christ and 
the apostles ? Rest assured that the man who 
scoffs at Christianity, who neglects its precepts and 
violates its laws, runs a terrible risk of bringing 
upon himself, his wife, and his children, the ven- 
geance of nature, which knows justice but not 
mercy. Rest assured that the man who respects 
the maxims of that religion, and abstains from all 
uncleanness, is the only man who is worthy the 
full and confiding love of an honorable woman. 



THE MARKS OF CHARACTER. 83 



THE SYMBOLISM OF THE HUMAN BODY. 

Philosophers say that every idle word which is 
spoken continues to vibrate in the air through all 
infinity. So it is with the passions and the 
thoughts. Each impresses on the body some in- 
delible mark, and a long continuance of similar 
thoughts leaves a visible imprint. 

Under the names of phrenology, physiognomy, 
palmistry, and others, attempts have been made at 
divers times to lay down fixed principles by which 
we could judge of men by their outsides ; but only 
vague results have been obtained. A learned 
German author, of high repute in exact science, 
has gone a different way to work. He has studied 
the body as a whole, and sought with the eye of 
an anatomist how different avocations, passions, tem- 
peraments, habits, mould and fashion the external 
parts of man. His results are embraced in a 
curious volume which he entitles The Symbolism of 
the Human Body. We shall borrow some hints 
from it, germane to our present theme." 

As to size, large-bodied and large-boned men 
possess greater energy, a more masculine character, 
but often less persistence, and are usually devoid of 
the more delicate emotions. Fat people are good- 
tempered, but indolent ; thin people, full of life, 
but irascible. 

The neck is a significant part of the body. 
View it from in front, and it discloses the physical 
constitution. There are the conduits of the food 
and the air ; there, the great blood-vessels pass to 
the head, and its base is modified by their form as 



84 THE MAIDEN. 

they pass from the heart. When broad and full, 
it denotes a vigorous physical life, — a plethoric 
constitution. A distinguished teacher of midwifery, 
Professor Pajot of Paris, says that when he sees 
one of those necks full in front, like that of Marie 
Antoinette, as shown in her portraits, he prepares 
himself to combat child-bed convulsions. That 
queen, it is well-known, nearly perished with them. 

The back of the neck contains the vertebral 
column, and is close to the brain. It reveals the 
mental constitution. The short round neck of the 
prize-fighter betrays his craft. The slender, arched, 
and graceful neck of the well-proportioned woman 
is the symbol of health and a well-controlled mind. 
Burke, in his Essay on the Beautiful, calls it the 
most beauteous object in nature. It is a common 
observation, that a sensual character is shown by 
the thick and coarse development of this portion of 
the body. 

The hair, also, has a significance. Fine whitish 
hair, like that of a child, goes with a simple, child- 
like disposition ; black hair denotes a certain hard- 
ness of character ; red hair has long been supposed 
to be associated with a sensual constitution, but it 
rather indicates a physical weakness, — a tendency 
to scrofula. This is, however, a tendency merely. 
Thin hair is often the result of protracted mental 
labor, though many other causes produce it. 

Every great man, says Herder, has a glance 
which no one can imitate. We may go farther, 
and say that every man of decided character reveals 
it in his eyes. They are the most difficult organs 
for the hypocrite to control. Beware of the man 



ENGAGED. 85 

who cannot look you in the eyes, and of him in 
whose eyes there lurks an expression which allures 
yet makes you shudder. The one has something 
he dares not tell you, the other something you dare 
not listen to. 

Symmetry, strength, grace, health, — these are 
admirable qualities in a man. From the remotest 
ages they have been the marks of heroes. Second- 
ary though they are to moral and mental qualities, 
they should be ever highly valued. A manly man ! 
Nature designs such to be the sires of future genera- 
tions. No danger that we shall fall to worshipping 
physical beauty again. The only fear is, that in 
this lank, puny, scrawny generation of ours, we 
shall, out of vanity, underrate sUch beauty. Let it 
be ever remembered that this is the ideal, from 
which any departure is deterioration. 

THE ENGAGEMENT. 

When our grandmothers were engaged, the 
minister rose in his pulpit on Sunday morning, be- 
fore the assembled congregation, and proclaimed 
the ' banns/ stating that if any one knew just cause 
or lawful impediment why the lovers should not be 
married, he should state it there and then. Some- 
times a great hubbub was created when some dis- 
carded suitor rose, forbidding the banns, and 
claimed that the capricious maiden had previously 
promised herself to him. Perhaps it was to avoid 
such an uncomfortable check on the freedom of 
flirtation that the ancient custom was dropped. 

Certain it is, that to be ' engaged ' sits very 
lightly on the minds of both young men and 



86 THE MAIDEN. 

maidens now-a-days. We know some of either 
sex who make it a boast how often they have made 
and unmade this slender tie. It is a dangerous 
pastime. ' The hand of little use hath the daintier 
touch,' and they who thus trifle with their affections 
will end by losing the capacity to feel any real 
affection at all. 

Undoubtedly there occur instances where a 
woman has pledged herself in all seriousness, and 
afterwards sees her affianced in a light which warns 
her that she cannot be happy with him, — that 
the vows she will be called upon to pronounce at 
the altar will be hollow and false. What is she to 
do? 

We are not inditing the decrees of the Court of 
Love. Here is the advice of another to her hand: 

{ First to thine own self be true, 
And then it follows, as the night the day, 
That thou canst ne'er be false to any man.' 

CONCERNING LONG ENGAGEMENTS. 

They are hurtful, and they are unnecessary. Is 
love so vagrant that it must be tied by such a chain ? 
Better let it go. True love asks no oath; it casteth 
out fear, and believes without a promise. 

There are other reasons, sound physiological 
reasons, which we could adduce, if need were, to 
show that the close personal relations which arise 
between persons who are engaged should not be 
continued too long a time. They lead to excite- 
ment and debility, sometimes to danger and 
disease. Especially is this true of nervous, excit- 
able, sympathetic dispositions. 



WHEN TO MARRY. 87 

If we are asked to be definite, and give figures, 
we should say that a period not longer than a year, 
nor shorter than three months, should intervene 
between the engagement and the marriage. 

THE RIGHT TIME OF YEAR TO MARRY. 

Woman, when she marries, enters upon a new 
life, and a trying one. Every advantage should be 
in her favour. The season is one of those advan- 
tages. Extreme heat and extreme cold both wear 
severely on the human frame. Mid-winter and 
mid-summer are, therefore, alike objectionable, 
especially the latter. 

Spring and fall are usually chosen, as statistics 
show, and the preference is just. On the whole, 
the spring is rather to be recommended than the 
autumn. In case of a birth within the year, the 
child will have attained sufficient age to weather 
its period of teething more easily ere the next 
summer. 

THE RIGHT TIME IN THE MONTH TO MARRY. 

We mean the woman's own month, that which 
spans the time between her periodical sicknesses, be 
it two or five weeks. Let her choose a day about 
equidistant from two periods. The reasons for this 
we shall specify hereafter. _ 

THE WEDDING TOUR. 

Custom prescribes a journey immediately after 

marriage, of a week or a month or two. It is an 

unwise provision. The event itself is disturbance 

enough for the system ; and to be hurried hither 

8 



88 THE MAIDEN. 

and thither, stowed in narrow berths and inconve- 
nient carriages, troubled with baggage, and annoyed 
by the importunities of cabmen, waiters, and 
hangers-on of every description, is enough, in 
ordinary times, to test the temper of a saint. 

The foundation of many an unhappy future is 
laid on the wedding tour. Not only is the young 
wife tried beyond all her experience, and her nerv- 
ous system harassed, but the husband, too, partakes 
of her weakness. Many men, who really love the 
women they marry, are subject to a slight revulsion 
of feeling for a few days after marriage. l When 
the veil falls, and the girdle is loosened,' says the 
German poet Schiller, 'the fair illusion vanishes.' 
A half regret crosses their minds for the jolly 
bachelorhood they have renounced. The mysteri- 
ous charms which gave their loved one the air of 
something more than human, disappear in the 
prosaic sunlight of familiarity. 

Let neither be alarmed, nor lose their self-control. 
Each requires indulgence, and management, from 
the other ; both should demand from themselves 
patience and self-command. A few weeks, and 
this danger is over ; but a mistake now is the mis- 
take of a lifetime. More than one woman has 
confessed to us that her unhappiness commenced 
from her wedding tour ; and when we inquired 
more minutely, we have found that it arose from 
an ignorance and disregard of just such little pre- 
cautions as we have been referring to. 

Yet it is every way advisable that the young pair 
should escape the prying eyes of friends and rela- 
tives at such a moment. Let them choose some 



THE WEDDING TOUR. 89 

quiet resort, not too long a journey from home, 
where they can pass a few weeks in acquiring that 
more intimate knowledge of each other's character 
so essential to their future happiness. 



THE WIFE. 



THE WEDDING NIGHT. 

WE now enter upon the consideration of the 
second great period in the life of Woman. 
The maiden becomes a Wife. She is born into a 
new world. She assumes new relationships, — the 
sweetest, and, at the same time, the most natural of 
which she is capable. 

The great object of the conjugal union is the 
transmission of life, — a duty necessary in' order to 
repair the constant ravages of death, and thus per- 
petuate the race. In the fulfilment of this sublime 
obligation, woman plays the more prominent part, 
as she is the source and depositary of the future 
being. It is of moment, therefore, that she should 
not be altogether ignorant of the nature and re- 
sponsibilities of her position. Ignorance here 
means suffering, disease, and sometimes death. 
Let us then interrogate science in regard to these 
matters, among the most interesting of all human 
concerns. 

The initiation into marriage, like its full fruition, 
maternity, is attended with more or less suffering. 
Much, however, maybe done to avert and to lessen 
the pain which waits upon the first step in this new 
life. For this purpose, regard must be had to the 



EARL Y MAR J TAL RELATIONS. 9 1 

selection of the day. We have said that a time 
about midway between the monthly recurring 
periods is best fitted for the consummation of 
marriage. As this is a season of sterility, it re- 
commends itself on this account, in the interest of 
both the mother and offspring. The first nuptial 
relations should be fruitless, in order that the indis- 
positions possibly arising from them shall have 
time to subside before the appearance of the dis- 
turbances incident to pregnancy. One profound 
change should not too quickly succeed the other. 
About the tenth day after menstruation should 
therefore be chosen for the marriage ceremony. 

It sometimes happens that marriage is consum- 
mated with difficulty. To overcome this, care, 
management, and forbearance should always be 
employed, and anything like precipitation and 
violence avoided. Only the consequences of un- 
restrained impetuosity are to be feared. In those 
rare cases in which greater resistance is experienced 
than can be overcome by gentle means, the exist- 
ence of a condition contrary to nature may be 
suspected. Violence can then only be productive 
of injury, and is not without danger. Medical art 
should be appealed to, as it alone can afford assist- 
ance in such an emergency. 

Although the first conjugal approaches are ordi- 
narily accompanied by slight flooding, a loss of 
blood does not always occur. Its absence proves 
nothing. The appearance of blood was formerly 
regarded as a test of virginity. The Israelites, 
Arabs, and others carefully preserved and triumph- 
antly exhibited the evidence of it as an infallible 
8* 



92 THE WIFE. 

sign of the virtue of the bride. They were in error. 
Its presence is as destitute of signification as its 
absence ; for it is now well known that widows, 
and wives long separated from their husbands, 
often have a like experience. The temperament is 
not without its influence. In those of lymphatic 
temperament, pale blondes, who often suffer from 
local discharge and weakness, the parts being re- 
laxed, there is less pain and little or no haemo- 
rrhage. In brunettes, who have never had any such 
troubles, the case is reversed. The use of baths, 
unguents, etc., by the young wife, however service- 
able they might prove, is obviously impracticable. 
This great change sometimes also produces swelling 
and inflammation of the glands of the neck. 

Marital relations ordinarily continue during the 
fir.t few weeks to be more or less painful. General 
constitutional disturbance and disorders of the ner- 
vous system often result. These troubles are all in- 
creased by the stupid custom of hurrying the bride 
from place to place, at a time when the bodily quiet 
and the mental calmness and serenity so desirable 
to her should be the only objects in view. Too 
frequent indulgence at this period is a fruitful 
source of various inflammatory diseases, and often 
occasions temporary sterility and ill-health. The 
old custom requiring a three days' separation after 
the first nuptial approach was a wise one, securing 
to the young wife the soothing and restoring in- 
fluence of rest. Nothing was lost by it, and much 
gained. 

In a little while, however, all irritation should 
subside, and no suffering or distress of any kind, 



JOINT OCCUPANCY OF ROOM AND BED. 93 

whether general or local, should attend upon the 
performance of this important function. The pre- 
sence of suffering now becomes indicative of disease. 
Of this we will speak hereafter. 

SHALL HUSBAND AND WIFE OCCUPY THE SAME 
ROOM AND BED ? 

One-third of life is passed in sleep. This period 
of unconsciousness and rest is necessary for the 
renewal of vital strength, and upon its proper 
management depends much of the health not 
merely of the husband and wife, but of their off- 
spring. A great deal has been written upon the 
effect on health and happiness of occupying sepa- 
rate apartments, separate beds in the same apart- 
ment, or the same bed. This vexed question it is 
impossible to settle by absolute rules, suitable to 
all cases. In general, it may be asserted that there 
are no valid physiological reasons for desiring to 
change the custom which now prevails in this and 
most other countries. When both parties are in 
good health, and of nearly the same age, one bed- 
chamber, if sufficiently roomy, may be used without 
any disadvantage to either. Such an arrangement 
is also to be commended, because it secures closer 
companionship, and thus developes and sustains 
mutual affection. 

It is said that in Zurich, in the olden time, when 
a quarrelsome couple applied for a divorce, the 
magistrate refused to listen to them at first. He 
ordered that they should be shut up together in 
one room for three days, with one bed, one table, 
one plate, and one cup. Their food was passed in 



94 THE WIFE. 

by attendants, who neither saw nor spoke to them. 
On the expiration of the three days, it was usual to 
find that neither of them wanted a separation. 

As before stated, there are conditions under 
which sleeping together is prejudicial to the health. 
A certain amount of fresh air during the night is 
required by every one. Re-breathed air is poi- 
sonous. During sleep constant exhalations take 
place from the lungs and from the skin, which are 
injurious if absorbed. A room twelve feet square 
is too small for two persons, unless it is so thoroughly 
ventilated that there is a constant change of air. In 
fact, a sleeping apartment for two persons should 
contain an air-space of at least twenty-four hundred 
cubic feet, and the facilities for ventilation should 
be such that the whole amount will be changed in 
an hour, — that is, at the rate of forty cubic feet per 
minute ; for it has been ascertained that twenty 
cubic feet of fresh air a minute are required for 
every healthy adult. 

Very young and very old people should never 
occupy the same bed. When the married couple 
hold the relation to each other, in regard to age, of 
grandfather and granddaughter, separate apart- 
ments should be insisted upon. 

Certain diseases can be produced by sleeping to- 
gether. The bed of a consumptive, it is well 
known, is a powerful source of contagion. In Italy 
it is the custom, after death, to destroy the 
bed-clothes of consumptive patients. Tubercular 
disease has, within the past few years, been trans- 
ferred from men to animals by inoculation. Au- 
thentic cases are upon record of young robust girls, 



THE BED AND ITS COVERINGS. 95 

of healthy parentage, marrying men affected with 
consumption, acquiring the disease in a short time, 
and dying, in some instances, before their hus- 
bands. In these significant cases, the sickly ema- 
nations have apparently been communicated during 
sleep. When, therefore, either husband or wife is 
known to have consumption, it would be highly 
imprudent for them to pass the long hours of the 
night either in the same bed or in the same room. 

WHAT KIND OF BED IS MOST HEALTHFUL ? 

Feather-beds are not conducive to the health of 
either sex. Mattresses made of wool, or of wool 
and horsehair, are much better. The bed should 
be opened, and its contents exposed to the air and 
sunlight, once every year. Beds long saturated 
with the night exhalations of their occupants are 
not wholesome. A number of ancient writers have 
alleged — and it has been reasserted by modern 
authorities — that sleeping on sponge is of service to 
those who desire to increase their families. The 
mattresses of compressed sponge recently intro- 
duced, therefore, commend themselves to married 
people thus situated. Hemlock boughs make a bed 
which has a well-established reputation for similar 
virtues. 

The odor of cone-bearing trees has a well-known 
influence upon the fruitfulness of wedlock. Those 
who live in pine forests have ordinarily large 
families of children. 

Excessive clothing at night is highly injurious. 
So also is a fire in the bed-room, except in case of 
sickness. If the body be too much heated during 



96 THE WIFE. 

sleep, perspiration occurs, or the action of the heart 
is increased, and the whole economy becomes ex- 
cited. Either condition prevents sound sleep and 
reinvigoration of the body. Wives in feeble health, 
and those liable to attacks of flooding, should 
therefore have a particular regard to the quantity 
of clothing on their beds. 

THE DIGNITY AND PROPRIETY OF THE SEXUAL 
INSTINCT. 

A distinguished medical writer has divided 
women into three classes in regard to the intensity 
of the sexual instinct. He asserts that a larger 
number than is generally supposed have little or no 
sexual feeling. A second class of women, more 
numerous than these, but still small as compared 
with the whole of their sex, are more or less sub- 
ject to strong passion. Those of the first class can 
no more form an idea of the strength of the im- 
pulse in other women, than the blind can of colors. 
They therefore often err in their judgments. The 
third class comprises the vast majority of women, 
in whom the sexual appetite is as moderate as all 
other appetites. 

It is a false notion, and contrary to nature, that 
this passion in a woman is a derogation to her sex. 
The science of physiology indicates most clearly 
its propriety and dignity. There are wives who 
plume themselves on their repugnance or their dis- 
taste for their conjugal obligations. They speak of 
their coldness and of the calmness of their senses, 
as if these were not defects. Excepting those 
afflicted with vices of conformation, or with dis- 



THE DIGNITY OF PASSION. 97 

orders of sensibility,- — which amount to the same 
thing, — all wives are called upon to receive and pay 
the imposts of love ; and those who can withdraw 
themselves from the operation of this mysterious 
law without suffering and with satisfaction, show 
themselves by that fact to be incomplete in their 
organization, and deficient in the special function 
of their being. There should be no passion for 
one which is not shared by both. Generation is a 
duty. The feeling which excites to the preserva- 
tion of the species is as proper as that which 
induces the preservation of the individual. Pas- 
sionate, exclusive, and durable love for a particular 
individual of the opposite sex, it has been well said, 
is characteristic of the human race, and is a mark 
of distinction from other animals. The instinct of 
reproduction in mankind is thus joined to an affec- 
tionate sentiment, which adds to its sweetness and 
prolongs infinitely its duration. 

Many physiologists have assigned to the feelings 
an important role in conception, the possibility of 
which has even been doubted if there be no passion 
on the side of the woman. Although this extreme 
view is not tenable in the light of modern research, 
yet all recent authorities agree that conception is 
more assured when the two individuals who co- 
operate in it participate at the same time in the 
transports of which it is the fruit. It is also with- 
out doubt true that the disposition of the woman 
at that time has much power in the formation of 
the foetus, both in modifying its physical constitu- 
tion and in determining the character and tem- 
perament of its mind. The influence, long ago 



^)8 THE WIFE. 

attributed by Shakspeare to 'a dull, stale, tired 
bed' in creating a 'tribe of fops,' is not a mere 
poet's fancy. 

In this manner also maybe explained the results 
of prolonged continence upon the offspring, for 
desires are usually vivid in proportion to the pre- 
vious period of rest. The father of Montaigne, 
returning after an absence of thirty-two years, 
during which he was engaged in the wars of Italy, 
begot his son, so justly celebrated in French litera- 
ture. The father of J. J. Rousseau, after a consi- 
derable absence in Constantinople, brought to his 
wife the reward of a long fidelity. 

Sexual passion exerts, therefore, a marked in- 
fluence upon the future being before conception, by 
the impression made upon the elements which come 
together to form it. The question now occurs, 
What effect does its presence and gratification 
produce upon the parents ? We answer, It is a 
natural and healthful impulse. Its influence is 
salutary. A marked improvement in the physical 
condition of delicate women often follows a happy 
marriage. This sometimes occurs even in those 
cases where, from the nature of the disorder, the 
reverse might be expected. The utility of the 
passions, well directed, has become a maxim in 
medicine as in morality. And what passion is 
more important and fervent than that of which we 
write ? The fathers in medicine, and their modern 
followers, agree in ascribing to the pleasures of 
love, indulged in with moderation, activity an-d 
lightness of the body, vigor and vivacity of the 
mind. 



THE INDULGENCE OF PASSION. 99 

Music, apart from its immense influence on the 
nervous system in general, seems sometimes to ex- 
ercise a special action on the sexual instinct. Science 
possesses at the present day some facts beyond dis- 
pute, which prove the great power of music in this 
respect. 

ON THE INDULGENCE AND THE RESTRAINT OF 
SEXUAL DESIRE. 

The act of generation is a voluntary one. But 
nature has so placed it under the empire of pleasure, 
that the voice of discretion is no longer heard, and 
the will is often led captive. Hence it is well, for 
hygienic reasons, to consider its laws. 

The too frequent repetition of the reproductive 
act is known to be followed by consequences inju- 
rious to the general health. Too rigid continence is 
not unattended, in many constitutions, with danger, 
for the victory over passion may be dearly bought. 
Science recommends the adoption of a wise mean 
between two extremes equally destructive. By fol- 
lowing her counsel, women may escape from the 
hysterical and other disorders which often wait as 
well upon excess as upon too great denial of that 
passion, which claims satisfaction as a natural right. 
As men have made laws upon all subjects, we 
need not be surprised to learn that they have legis- 
lated upon this. History informs us that the legis- 
lators of ancient times have not failed to occupy 
themselves with this grave question of conjugal 
economy. The ordinances of Solon required that 
the married should acquit themselves of their duties 
at least three times a month ; those of Zoroaster 



9 



G 2 



100 THE WIFE. 

prescribed once a week. Mohammed ordered that 
any wife neglected by her husband longer than a 
week could demand and obtain a divorce. It is not, 
however, in these, and other enactments which might 
be quoted, that guidance is to be sought. The prin- 
ciples derived from nature and experience are more 
valuable than human laws, however venerable ; for 
these too often serve only to reflect the profound 
ignorance of their makers. 

Moderation should here prevail. Health is thus 
preserved and strengthened, and the gratification 
doubled. The art of seasoning pleasures in general, 
consists in being avaricious with them. To abstain 
from enjoyment, is the philosophy of the sage, the 
epicurism of reason. 

Proper self-denial in the gratification of the wants 
of physical love is a source of good, not only to the 
individual practising it, but to the community, as 
we shall show hereafter. It may be observed for 
one's own profit only, or for the benefit of another. 
The latter is in the end more conducive to self- 
interest than the former. A double advantage is 
derived therefrom, — gratitude and sympathy re- 
turned, and increase of appetite and of power for 
future enjoyment. Excess of indulgence results in 
the pain of surfeit and the extinction of affection. 
Earnest love, satisfying itself with small gratifica- 
tions, is a more copious source of happiness than that 
frequently quenched by full gratification. 

What, then, is this moderation which both Hygeia 
and Venus command ? Here, again, invariable rules 
are not possible. Science rarely laws down laws so 
inflexible as those of the Medes and-. Persians. She 



THE SEASON FOR LOVE. 10 1 

designates limits. The passage between Scylla and 
Charybdis is often a wide one. The folly of the 
ancient statutes which have been referred to, consists 
mainly in their failure to recognise the diverse influ- 
ence of age, temperament, seasons, etc. 

It almost appears as if there were but one season 
for generation, that in which the sun re-warms and 
vivifies the earth, trees dress in verdure, and animals 
respire the soft breath of spring. Then every living 
thing reanimates itself. The impulse of reproduc- 
tion is excited. Now, also, its gratification is most 
beneficial to the individual and to the species. Chil- 
dren conceived in- the spring time have greater 
vitality, are less apt to die during infancy, than those 
conceived at any other time of the year. The sta- 
tistics of many thousand cases, recently carefully 
collatep! in England, prove this beyond peradven- 
ture. It is well known that a late calf, or one born 
at the end of the summer, is not likely fco become a 
well-developed and healthy animal. This has been 
attributed to the chilling influence of approaching 
winter ; but it is capable of another and, perhaps, a 
truer explanation. Nature's impulses, therefore, in 
the spring of the year are for the good of the race, 
and may then be more frequently indulged without 
prejudice to the individual. Summer is the season 
which agrees the least with the exercise of the gene- 
rative functions. The autumn months are the most 
most unfruitful. Then, also, derangements of the 
economy are readily excited by marital intempe- 
rance. 

The temperaments exert over reproduction, as 
over all the other functions of the body, a power- 



102 THE WIFE. 

ful influence. Love is said to be the ruling passion 
in the sanguine temperament, as ambition is in the 
bilious. There is also in some cases a peculiar con- 
dition of the nervous system which impels to, or 
diverts from, sexual indulgence. In some women, 
even in moderation, it acts as a poison, being 
followed by headache and prostration, lasting for 
days. 

With advancing years, the fading of sexual desire 
calls attention to the general law, that animals and 
plants, when they become old, are dead to reproduc- 
tion. What in early life is followed by temporary 
languor, in matured years is succeeded by a train of 
symptoms much graver and more durable. 

Those who are in feeble health, and particularly 
those who have delicate chests, ought to be sober in 
the gratification of love. Sexual intercourse has 
proved mortal after severe haemorrhages. 

All organized beings are powerfully affected by 
propagation. Animals become depressed and de- 
jected after it. The flower w r hich shines so brilliantly 
at the moment of its amours, after the consumma- 
tion of that act, withers and falls. It is wise, there- 
fore, in imparting life, to have a care not to shorten 
one's own existence. Nothing is more certain than 
that animals and plants lessen the duration of their 
lives by multiplied sexual enjoyments. The abuse 
of these pleasures produces lassitude and weakness. 
Beauty of feature and grace of movement are sacri- 
ficed. When the excess is long continued, it occa- 
sions spasmodic and convulsive affections, enfeeble- 
ment of the senses, particularly that of sight, 
deprivation of the mental functions, loss of memory, 



REASON FOR DENIAL, 103 

pulmonary consumption and death. One of the 
most eminent of living physiologists has asserted 
that 'development of the individual and the re- 
production of the species stand in a reverse ratio to 
each other,' and that ' the highest degree of bodily 
vigor is inconsistent with more than a very mode- 
indulgence in sexual intercourse/ 

The general principles we have just enunciated 
are of great importance in the regulation of the 
health. They are more suggestive and useful than 
the precise rules which have from time to time been 
laid down on this subject. 

TIMES WHEN MARITAL RELATIONS SHOULD BE 
SUSPENDED. 

There are times at which marital relations are 
eminently improper. We are told, 1 Cor. vii. 3, 4, 
that neither husband nor wife has the power to 
refuse the conjugal obligation when the debt is de- 
manded. But there are certain legitimate causes 
for denial by the wife. 

A condition of intoxication in the husband is a 
proper ground for refusal. Fecundation taking 
place while either parent has been in this state has 
produced idiots and epileptics. This has happened 
again and again. The cases on record are so 
numerous and well-authenticated, as to admit of 
no doubt in regard to the fatal effect upon the 
mind of the offspring of conception under such cir- 
cumstances. 

Physical degeneracy is also often a consequence 
of procreation during the alcoholic intoxication of 
one or both parents. A peculiar arrest of growth 

9* 



104 THE WIFE- 

and development of body and mind takes place, 
and, in some instances, the unfortunate children, 
although living to years of manhood, remain per- 
manent infants, just able to stand by the side of a 
chair, to utter a few simple sounds, and to be 
amused with childish toys. 

During convalescence from a severe sickness, or 
when there is any local or constitutional disease 
which would be aggravated by sexual intercourse, 
it should be abstained from. There is reason for 
believing that a being procreated at a period of ill- 
humour, bodily indisposition, or nervous debility, 
may carry with it, during its whole existence, some 
small particles of these evils. When there exists 
any contagious disease, refusals are of course valid, 
and often a duty to the unborn. Poverty, or the 
wish to have no more children, can only be excep- 
tionally allowed as a reason for the denial of all 
conjugal privileges. 

The opinion that sexual relations practised dur- 
ing the time of the menses engender children liable 
to scrofulous disease, is a mere popular prejudice. 
But there are other and better-founded reasons for 
continence during these periods. 

The question of intercourse during pregnancy 
and suckling will come up for consideration when 
speaking of these conditions hereafter. 

CONDITIONS WHEN MARITAL RELATIONS ARE 
PAINFUL. 

Nature has not designed that a function of great 
moment to the human race— one involving its very 
existence — should be attended with pain. The 



PAINFUL RELATIONS. 105 

presence of pleasure is indicative of health, its 
absence of disease. But to a woman who has sys- 
tematically displaced her womb by years of impru- 
dence in conduct or dress, this act, which should be 
a physiological one, and free from any hurtful ten- 
dencies, becomes a source of distress and even of 
illness. The diseases of the womb which some- 
times follow matrimony are not to be traced to 
excessive indulgence in many cases, but to indul- 
gence to any extent by those who have altered the 
natural relation of the parts before marriage. A 
prominent physician, Prof. T. Gaillard Thomas, of 
New York, has said that ' upon a woman who has 
enfeebled her system by habits of indulgence and 
luxury, pressed her uterus entirely out of its normal 
place, and who perhaps comes to the nuptial bed 
with some marked uterine disorder, the result of 
imprudence at menstrual epochs, sexual intercourse 
has a poisonous influence. The taking of food into 
the stomach exerts no hurtful influence on the 
digestive system ; but the taking of food by a 
dyspeptic, who has abused and injured that organ, 
does so.' 

When excessive pain exists, and every attempt 
occasions nervous trepidation and apprehension, it 
is absolutely certain that there is some diseased 
condition present, for which proper advice should 
be secured at once. Delay in doing so will not 
remove the necessity for medical interference in 
the end, while it will assuredly aggravate the 
trouble. Prompt intelligent aid, on the contrary, 
is usually followed by the happiest results in such 
cases. 



I06 THE WIFE. 



STERILITY. 



Wives who never become mothers are said to be 
sterile or barren. This condition is frequently a 
cause of much unhappiness. Fortune may favor the 
married couple in every other respect, yet if she re- 
fuse to accord the boon of even a single heir to heart 
and home, her smiles will bear the aspect of frowns. 
It is then of some interest to inquire into the causes 
of this condition, and how to prevent or remedy 
their operation. 

Dr. Duncan, of Edinburgh, has shown, by 
elaborate research, that in those wives who are 
destined to have children, there intervenes, on the 
average, about seventeen months between the mar- 
riage ceremony and the birth of the first child, and 
that the question whether a woman will be sterile 
is decided in the first three years of married life. 
If she have no children in that time, the chances 
are thirteen to one against her ever having any. 
In those cases, therefore, in which the first three 
years of married life are fruitless, it is highly de- 
sirable for those wishing a family to ascertain whe- 
ther or not the barrenness is dependent upon any 
defective condition capable of relief. 

The age of a wife at the time of marriaee has 
much to do with the expectation of children. As 
the age increases over twenty-five years, the interval 
between the marriage and the birth of the first child 
is lengthened. For it has been ascertained that 
not only are women most fecund from twenty to 
twenty-four, but that they begin their career of 



BARRENNESS. 107 

child-bearing sooner after marriage than their 
younger or elder sisters. Early marriages (those 
before the age of twenty) are sometimes more fruit- 
ful than late ones (those after twenty-four). The 
interesting result has further been arrived at in 
England, that about one in fourteen of all marriages 
of women between fifteen and nineteen are without 
offspring ; that wives married at ages from twenty 
to twenty-four inclusive, are almost all fertile ; and 
that after that age the chances of having no 
children gradually increases with the greater age 
at the time of marriage. 

There are two kinds of sterility which are 
physiological, natural to all women, — that of 
young girls before puberty, and that of women 
who are past the epoch of the cessation of the 
menses. In some very rare cases, conception 
takes place after cessation. In one published 
case, it occurred nine months afterwards, and in 
another eighteen months. In some very rare cases, 
also, conception has taken place before the first 
menstruation. 

The older a woman is at the time of her mar- 
riage, the longer deferred is the age at which she 
naturally becomes sterile. She bears children later 
in life, in order to compensate, as it were, for her 
late commencement. But although she continues 
to have children until a more advanced age than 
the earlier married, yet her actual child-bearing 
period is shorter. Nature does not entirely make 
up at the end of life for the time lost from the 
duties of maternity in early womanhood ; for the 
younger married have really a longer era of for- 



108 THE WIFE. 

tility than the older, though it terminates at an 
earlier age. 

A wife who, having had children, has ceased for 
three years to conceive, will probably bear no more, 
and the probability increases as time elapses. After 
the first, births take place with an average interval, 
in those who continue to be fertile, of about twenty 
months. 

Nursing women are generally sterile, above all, 
during the first months which follow accouchement, 
because the vital forces are then concentrated on the 
secretion of the milk. ' In a majority of instances, 
when suckling is prolonged to even nineteen or 
twenty months, pregnancy does not take place at 
all until after weaning. 

Climate has also an influence upon the fertility of 
marriages. In southern regions more children are 
born, fewer in northern. The number of children 
is in inverse proportion to the amount of food in a 
country and in a season. In Belgium, the higher 
the price of bread the greater the number of chil- 
dren, and the greater the number of infant deaths. 

The seasons exert a power over the increase of 
population. The spring of the year, as has already 
been stated, is the most favourable to fecundity. 
It is not known whether day and night have any 
effect upon conception. 

The worldly condition seems to have much to do 
with the size of a family. Rich and fashionable 
women have fewer children than their poor and 
hard-worked neighbours. Wealth and pleasure 
seem to be often gladly exchanged for the title 
of mother. 



LAWS OF FERTILITY. 109 

But it is our more particular object now to inquire 
into the causes of absolute sterility in individual 
cases, rather than to discuss the operation of general 
laws upon the fertility of the community at large, 
however inviting such a discussion may be. When 
marriages are fruitless, the wife is almost always 
blamed. It is not to be supposed that she is always 
in fault. Many husbands are absolutely sterile ; 
for it is a mistake to consider that every man must 
be prolific who is vigorous and enjoys good health. 
Neither does it follow, because a woman has never 
given birth to a living child, that she has not con- 
ceived. About one marriage in eight is unproduc- 
tive of living children, and therefore fails to add to 
the population. The seeds of life have, however, 
been more extensively sown among women than 
these figures would seem to indicate. If the life of 
an infant for a long time after birth is a frail one, 
before birth its existence is precarious in the ex- 
treme. It often perishes soon after conception. A 
sickness, unusually long and profuse, occurring in a 
young married woman a few days beyond the 
regular time, is often the only evidence she will 
ever have that a life she has communicated has 
been ended almost as soon as begun. A tendency 
to miscarriage may therefore be all that stands in 
the way of a family. This is generally remediable. 

It is a well-known fact that frigidity is a fre- 
quent cause of barrenness, as well as a barrier to 
matrimonial happiness. Its removal, so desirable, 
is in many cases possible by detecting and doing 
away with the cause. The causes are so various, 
that their enumeration here would be tedious and 



110 THE WIFE. 

unprofitable, for most of them can only be dis- 
covered and remedied by a practical physician who 
has studied the particular case under considera- 
tion. So also in regard to the various displacements 
and diseases of the womb preventing conception. 
Proper medical treatment is usually followed by 
the best results. 

While the fact that pleasure is found in the 
marital relation is a favourable augury for impreg- 
nation, it has been long noticed that Messalinas are 
sterile. It was observed in Paris, that out of one 
thousand only six bore children in the course of a 
year, whereas the ordinary proportion in that city 
for that time is three and a half births for every 
one hundred of the population. 

In some women, nothing seems amiss but too 
intense passion. Such cases are much more rare 
than instances of the opposite extreme producing 
the same effect. 

A condition of debility, or the presence of certain 
special poisons in the blood, may prevent concep- 
tion, or, what is to all intents the same thing, cause 
miscarriage. Many apparently feeble women have 
large families. But in numerous instances a tonic 
and sometimes an alterative constitutional treat- 
ment is required before pregnancy will take place. 
On the contrary, there are well-authenticated cases 
of women who were stout and barren in opulence 
becoming thin and prolific in poverty. 

The stimulus of novelty to matrimonial inter- 
course imparted by a short separation of husband 
and wife, is often salutary in its influence upon 
fertility. 



CAUSES OF STERILITY. Ill 

To show upon what slight constitutional differ- 
ences infertility often depends, it is merely neces- 
sary to allude to the fact, known to every one, that 
women who have not had children with one hus- 
band often have them with another. This condition 
of physiological incompatibility is evidently not 
altogether one of the emotional nature, for it is 
observed in animals, among whom it is by no 
means rare to find certain males and females who 
will not breed together, although both are known 
to be perfectly fruitful with other females and males. 
The ancients, believing that sterility was more 
common with couples of the same temperament 
and condition, advised, with Hippocrates, that 
blonde women should unite with dark men, thin 
women with stout men, and vice versd. 

Barren women should not despair. They some- 
times become fecund after a long lapse of years. 
In other words, they are sterile only during a cer- 
tain period of their lives, and then, a change occur- 
ring in their temperament with age, they become 
fruitful. History affords a striking example of this 
eccentricity of generation, in the birth of Louis 
xiv., whom Anne of Austria, Queen of France, 
brought into the world after a sterility of twenty- 
two years. Catherine de Medicis, wife of Henry il, 
became the mother of ten children after a sterility 
of ten years. Dr. Tilt, of London, mentions the 
case of a woman who was married at eighteen, but 
although both herself and her husband enjoyed 
habitual good health, conception did not take place 
until she was forty-eight, when she bore a child. 

Another case is reported where a well-formed female 
10 



112 THE WIFE. 

married at nineteen, and did not bear a child until 
she had reached her fiftieth year. 

Families often suffer from the effects of sterility. 
Civilised nations never do. Recent researches have 
been carefully instituted in several countries to de- 
termine the exact power of the human race to pre- 
serve its numbers against the ravages of death. It 
has been ascertained that during periods of peace 
the population can be maintained to the same point 
by the additions made to it through the procreating 
capacity of only one-half of the women in the com- 
munity. Nature, therefore, has made ample provi- 
sion for preventing a decrease of population through 
failure of reproduction. 

She has also instituted laws to prevent its undue 
increase. It would seem as if the extension of 
material mental and social comfort and culture has 
a tendency to render marriage less prolific, and 
population stationary or nearly so. So evident is 
this tendency, that it has been laid down as a 
maxim in sociology by Sismondi, that ' where the 
number of marriages is proportionally the greatest 
where the greatest number of persons participate in 
the duties and the virtues and the happiness of 
marriage, the smaller number of children does each 
marriage produce.' Thus, to a certain extent, does 
nature endorse the opinions of those political econo- 
mists who assert that increase of population beyond 
certain limits is an evil happily averted by wars, 
famines, and pestilences, which hence become 
national blessings in disguise. She, however, points 
to the extension of mental and moral education 
and refinement as gentler and surer means of re- 



REMEDIES FOR STERILITY. 113 

ducing plethoric population than those suggested 
by Malthus and Mill, 

Many causes of sterility, it will therefore be seen, 
are beyond the power of man to control. They 
operate on a large scale for the good of the whole. 
With these we have little concern. But there are 
others which may be influenced by intelligent en- 
deavor. Some have been already alluded to, and 
the remedy suggested ; but we will proceed to give 
more specific 

ADVICE TO WIVES WHO DESIRE TO HAVE 
CHILDREN. 

It has long been known that menstruation pre- 
sents a group of phenomena closely allied to 
fecundity. The first eruption of the menses is an 
unequivocal sign of the awakening of the faculty of 
reproduction. The cessation of the menstrual 
epochs is a sign equally certain of the loss of the 
faculty of reproduction. When conception has 
taken place, the periodical flow is interrupted. 
Labor occurs at about the time in which the 
menses would have appeared. In short, it is a fact, 
now completely established, that the time imme- 
diately before, and particularly that after the monthly 
sickness, is the period the most favorable to fecunda- 
tion. It is said that, by following the counsel to 
this effect given him by the celebrated Fernel, 
Henry II., the King of France, secured to himself 
offspring after the long sterility of his wife before 
referred to. Professor Bedford, of New York, says 
that he can point to more than one instance in 
which, by this advice, he has succeeded in adding 

H 



114 THE WIFE. 

to the happiness of parties who for years had been 
vainly hoping for the accomplishment of their 
wishes. 

Repose of the woman, and, above all, sojourn on 
the bed after the act of generation, also facilitates 
conception. Hippocrates, the great father of medi- 
cine, was aware of this, and laid stress upon it in 
his advice to sterile wives. 

The womb and the breasts are bound together by 
very strong sympathies : that which excites the 
one will stimulate the other. Dr. Charles Loudon 
mentions that four out of seven patients, by acting 
on this hint, became mothers. A similar idea oc- 
curred to the illustrious Marshall Hall, who advised 
the application of a strong infant to the breast. 
Fomentations of warm milk to the breasts and 
the corresponding portion of the spinal column, 
and the use of the breast -pump two or three 
times a day, just before the menstrual period, 
have also been recommended by good medical 
authorities. Horseback exercise, carried to fatigue, 
seems occasionally to have conduced to pregnancy. 

The greatest hope of success against sterility is to 
change the dominant state of the constitution. But 
this tan only be effected under suitable medical 
advice. The treatment of sterility — thanks to the 
recent researches of Dr. Marion Sims — is much more 
certain than formerly; and the intelligent physi- 
cian is now able to ascertain the cause, and point 
out the remedy, where before all was conjecture 
and experiment. The sterile wife should, there- 
fore, be slow in abandoning all hope of ever 
becoming a mother. 



CAN A WIFE BE TOO PROLIFIC. 115 



ON THE LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING. 

No part of our subject is more delicate than this. 
Very few people are willing to listen to a dispas- 
sionate discussion of the propriety or impropriety 
of limiting within certain bounds the number of 
children in a family. On the one side are many 
worthy physicians and pious clergymen, who, with- 
out listening to any arguments, condemn every 
effort to avoid large families ; on the other, are 
numberless wives and husbands, who turn a deaf 
ear to the warnings of doctors and the thunders 
of divines, and, eager to escape a responsibility 
they have assumed, hesitate not to resort to the 
most dangerous and immoral means to accomplish 
this end. 

We ask both parties to lay aside prejudice and 
prepossession, and examine with us this most im- 
portant social question in all its bearings. 

Let us first inquire whether there is such a thing 
as over-productio7i—\idMmg too many children. Un- 
questionably there is. Its disastrous effects on both 
mother and children are known to every intelligent 
physician. Two-thirds of all cases of womb disease, 
says Dr. Tilt, are traceable to child-bearing in feeble 
women. Hardly a day passes that a physician in 
large practice does not see instances of debility and 
disease resulting from overmuch child-bearing. 
Even the lower animals illustrate this. Every 
farmer is aware of the necessity of limiting the off- 
spring of his mares and cows. How much more 
severe are the injuries inflicted on the delicate 
organization of woman ! A very great mortality, 
10* H 2 



Il6 THE WIFE. 

says Dr. Duncan of Edinburgh, attends upon con- 
finements when they become too frequent. 

The evils of a too rapid succession of pregnancies 
are likewise conspicuous in the children. There is 
no more frequent cause, says Dr. Hillier, — whose 
authority in such matters none will dispute, — of 
rickets than this. Puny, sickly, short-lived offspring 
follows over-production. Worse than this, the care- 
fully compiled statistics of Scotland show that such 
children are pecularly liable to idiocy. Adding to 
an already excessive number, they come to over- 
burden a mother already overwhelmed with progeny. 
They cannot receive at her hands the attention they 
require. Weakly herself, she brings forth weakly 
infants. 'Thus/ concludes Dr. Duncan, 'are the 
accumulated evils of an excessive family manifest.' 

Apart from these considerations, there are certain 
social relations which have been thought by some to 
advise small families. When either parent sutlers 
from a disease which is transmissible, and wishes to 
avoid inflicting misery on an unborn generation, it 
has been urged that they should avoid children. 
Such diseases not unfrequently manifest themselves 
after marriage, which is answer enough to the objec- 
tion that if they did not wish children they should 
not marry. There are also women to whom preg- 
nancy is a nine months' torture, and others to 
whom it is nearly certain to prove fatal. Such 
a condition cannot be discovered before marriage, 
and therefore cannot be provided against by a 
single life. Can such women be asked to immolate 
themselves ? 

It is strange, says that distinguished writer, John 



HOW TO STOP ABORTION. W] 

Stuart Mill, that intemperance in drink, or in any ' 
other appetite, should be condemned so readily, but 
that incontinence in this respect should always meet 
not only with indulgence but praise. ' Little im- 
provement,' he adds, ' can be expected in morality 
until the producing too large families is regarded 
with the same feeling as drunkenness, or any other 
physical excess.' A well-known medical writer, Dr. 
Drysdale, in commenting on these words, adds : ' In 
this error, if error it be, I also humbly share.' 

'When dangerous prejudices,' says Sismondi, the 
learned historian of southern Europe, ■ have not be- 
come accredited, when our true duties towards those 
to whom we give life are not obscured in the name 
of a sacred authority, no married man will have 
more children than he can bring up properly.' 

Such is the language of physicians and states- 
men ; but a stronger appeal has been made for the 
sake of morality itself. The detestable crime of 
abortion is appallingly rife in our day ; it is abroad 
in our land to an extent which would have shocked 
the dissolute women of pagan Rome. Testimony 
from all quarters, especially from New England, has 
accumulated within the past few years to sap our 
faith in the morality and religion of American 
women. This wholesale, fashionable murder, how 
are we to stop it ? Hundreds of vile men and women 
in our large cities subsist by this slaughter of the 
innocents, and flaunt their ill-gotten gains — the price 
of blood — in our public thoroughfares. Their adver- 
tisements are seen in the newspapers ; their soul and 
body destroying means are hawked in every town. 
With such temptation strewn in her path, what will 



I IS THE WIFE. 

the woman threatened with an excessive family do ? 
Will she not yield to evil, and sear her conscience 
with the repetition of her wickedness ? Alas ! daily 
experience in the heart of a great city discloses to 
us only too frequently the fatal ease of such a 
course. 

In view of the injuries of excessive child-bearing 
on the one hand, and of this prevalent crime on the 
other, a man of genius and sympathy, Dr. Raci- 
borski of Paris, took the position that the avoidance 
of offspring to a certain extent is not only legitimate, 
but should be recommended as a measure of public 
good. ' We know how bitterly we shall be attacked,' 
he says, ' for promulgating this doctrine ; but if our 
ideas only render to society the services we expect 
of them, we shall have effaced from the list of 
crimes the one most atrocious without exception, 
that of child-murder, before or after birth, and we 
shall have poured a little happiness into the bosoms 
of despairing families, where poverty is allied to 
the knowledge that offspring can be born only to 
prostitution or mendicity. The realization of such 
hopes will console us under the attacks upon our 
doctrines.' 

It has been eagerly repeated by some, that the 
wish to limit offspring arises most frequently from 
an inordinate desire of indulgence. We reply to 
such, that they do not know the human heart, and 
that they do it discredit. More frequently the wish 
springs from a love of children. The parents seek 
to avoid having more than they can properly nourish 
and educate. They do not wish to leave their sons 
and daughters in want. ' This,' says a writer in 



EXCESSIVE CHILD-BEARING. 1 1 9 

The Nation (of New York), in an article on this in- 
teresting subject, — ' this is not the noblest motive of 
action, of course, but there is something finely 
human about it.' 

' Very much indeed is it to be wished,' says Dr. 
Edward Reich, after reviewing the multitudinous 
evils which result to individuals and society from a 
too rapid increase in families, ' that the function of 
reproduction be placed under the dominion of the 
will.' 

Men are very ready to find an excuse for self-in- 
dulgence ; and if they cannot get one anywhere else, 
they seek it in religion. They tell the woman it is 
her duty to bear all the children she can. They 
refer her to the sturdy, strong-limbed women of 
early times, to the peasant women of northern 
Europe, who emigrate to America, and ask and ex- 
pect their wives to rival them in fecundity. Such 
do not reflect that they have been brought up to 
light indoor employment, that their organization is 
more nervous and frail, that they absolutely have 
not the stamina required for many confinements. 

Moreover, they presume too much in asking her 
to bear them. ' If a woman has a right to decide 
on any question,' said a genial physician in the 
Massachusetts Medical Society a few years since, ' it 
certainly is as to how many children she shall bear.' 
' Certainly,' say the editors of a prominent medical 
journal, ' wives have a right to demand of their 
husbands at least the same consideration which a 
breeder extends to his stock.' ' Whenever it be- 
comes unwise that the family should be increased,' 
says Sismondi again, 'justice and humanity require 



120 THE WIFE. 

that the husband should impose on himself the 
same restraint which is submitted to by the un- 
married.' 

An eminent writer on medical statistics, Dr. 
Henry MacCormac, says : ' The brute yields to the 
generative impulse when it is experienced. He is 
troubled by no compunction about the matter. 
Now, a man ought not to act like a brute. He has 
reason to guide and control his appetites. Too 
many, however, forget, and act like brutes instead 
of as men. It would, in effect, prove very greatly 
conducive to man's interests were the generative im- 
pulses placed absolutely under the sway of right 
reason, chastity, forecast, and justice.' 

There is no lack of authorities, medical and non- 
medical, on this point. Few who weigh them well 
will deny that there is such a thing as too large a 
family; that there does come a time when a mother 
can rightfully demand rest from her labours, in the 
interest of herself, her children, and society. When 
is this time ? Here again the impossibility meets 
us of stating a definite number of children, and 
saying, ' This many and no more.' As in every 
other department of medicine, averages are of no 
avail in guiding individuals. There are women 
who require no limitation whatever. They can 
bear healthy children with rapidity, and suffer no 
ill results. There are others — and they are the 
majority — who should use temperance in this as in 
every other function ; and there are a few who 
should bear no children at all. It is absurd for 
physicians or theologians to insist that it is either 
the physical or moral duty of the female to have 



THEORIES OF CONCEPTION. 1 25 



NATURE OF CONCEPTION. 

The theories which have been advanced to ex- 
plain the manner in which the human species is 
continued and reproduced are very numerous. In- 
cluding the hypotheses of the ancient philosophers, 
some two hundred and fifty have been promulgated 
by the greatest thinkers of all times. The older ones 
do not deserve mention, as they are replete with 
absurdities. Such, for instance, is that of Pytha- 
goras, which supposed that a vapor descended 
from the brain and formed the embryo. The Scy- 
thians therefore took blood from the veins behind 
the ears to produce impotence and sterility. Modern 
science has shown the total error of this and many 
other views formerly entertained on this subject. 
Has galvanism or electricity any share in the 
mysterious function ? Some among the modern 
physiologists have supposed that there is an elec- 
trical or magnetic influence which effects generation. 
Even within a few months, Dr. Harvey L. Byrd, 
Professor of Obstetrics in the Medical Department 
of Washington University of Baltimore, has asserted 
that he has ' every reason for believing that fecun- 
dation or impregnation is always an electrical phe- 
nomenon ; ... it results from the completion of an 
electric circle, — the union of positive and negative 
electricities.' This, however, is not accepted by all 
as the dictum of modern science. Physiology has 
clearly established that the new being is the result 
of contact between the male element, an indepen- 
dent, living animal, on the one part, and the female 
element, a matured egg, on the other, involving the 



126 THE WIFE. 

union of the contents of two peculiar cells. With- 
out such contact, fecundation cannot take place. 

The only matter of practical moment in connec- 
tion with this most interesting function which we 
have to announce, is the influence of the mind on 
the offspring at the time of generation. This in- 
fluence has long been remarked in regard to animals 
as well as men. Jacob was aware of it when he 
made his shrewd bargain with Laban for ' all the 
speckled and spotted cattle ' as his hire. For we 
are told that then ' Jacob took him rods of green 
poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree, and 
pilled white strakes in them, and made the white 
appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods 
which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters 
in the watering-troughs, when the flocks came to 
drink, that they should conceive when they came 
to drink. And the flocks conceived before the rods, 
and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and 
spotted. And Jacob did separate the lambs, and 
set the faces of the flocks towards the ringstraked 
and all the brown in the flock of Laban ; and he 
put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not 
unto Laban's cattle. And it came to pass, when- 
ever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob 
laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the 
gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. 
But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not 
in : so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger 
Jacob's.' 

The impressions conveyed to the brain through 
the sense of sight are here asserted by the writer of 
Genesis to have influenced the system of the ewes so 



HOW TO HAVE BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN. I:. J 

that they brought forth young marked in the same, 
manner as the rods placed before their eyes. It is 
not said that there was any miraculous interposition ; 
but the whole account is given as if it were an 
everyday, natural, and well-known occurrence. 

The Greeks, a people renowned for their physical 
beauty, seemed to be aware of the value of mental 
impressions ; for in their apartments they were 
lavish of statues and paintings representing the 
gods and goddesses, delineated in accordance with 
the best models of art. 

Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, caused the por- 
trait of the beautiful Jason to be suspended before 
the nuptial bed, in order to obtain a handsome 
child. 

The following is related of the celebrated Galen : 
— A Roman magistrate, little, ugly, and hunch- 
backed, had by his wife a child exactly resembling 
the statue of ^Esop. Frightened at the sight of this 
little monster, and fearful of becoming the father 
of a posterity so deformed*, he went to consult Galen, 
the most distinguished physician of his time, who 
counselled him to place three statues of love 
around the conjugal bed, one at the foot, the others, 
one on each side, in order that the eyes of his young 
spouse might be constantly feasted on these charm- 
ing figures. The magistrate followed strictly the 
advice of the physician, and it is recorded that his 
wife bore him a child surpassing in beauty all his 
hopes. 

The fact that the attributes of the child are deter- 
mined to an important extent by the bodily and 
mental condition of the parents at the time of con- 
11* 



128 THE WIFE. 

ception, explains the marked difference almost con- 
stantly observed between children born to the same 
parents, however strong the family likeness may be 
among them. The changes constantly going on -in 
the physical, intellectual, and emotional states of 
the parents, produce a corresponding alteration in 
offspring conceived at successive intervals. Twins 
generally resemble each other very closely in every 
respect. 

Inasmuch, therefore, as the moment of generation 
is of much more importance than is commonly be- 
lieved in its effect upon the moral and physical life 
of the future being, it is to be wished that parents 
would pay some attention to this subject. It is the 
moment of creation, — that in which the first vital 
power is communicated to the new creature. Not 
without reason has nature associated with it the 
highest sensual exaltation of our existence. Dr. 
Hufeland, the author of The Art of Prolonging 
Life, has said, ' In my opinion it is of the utmost 
importance that this monrent should be confined to 
a period when the sensation of collected powers, 
ardent passion, and a mind cheerful and free from 
care, invite to it on both sides.' 

SIGNS OF FRUITFUL CONJUNCTION. 

There are some women in whom the act of con- 
ception is attended with certain sympathetic affec- 
tions, such as faintness, vertigo, etc., by which they 
know that it has taken place. 

Swelling of the neck was regarded in ancient times 
as a sign of conception. Its truthfulness has been 
reaffirmed by modern authorities. 



SIGNS OF CONCEPTION. I2'j 

It has also been asserted that impregnation gene- 
rally excites a universal tremor in all parts of the 
body, and that it is associated with more than an 
ordinary degree of pleasure. 

It must not be supposed, however, that enjoyment 
and impregnation bear necessarily to each other the 
relation of cause and effect, although this is the 
popular opinion. From too implicit a reliance upon 
this current belief, wives are often incredulous as to 
their true condition. 

It is a fact that in some cases sickness at the 
stomach manifests itself almost simultaneously with 
the act of fecundation. Authentic instances are on 
record of wives reckoning their confinement nine 
months from the first feeling of nausea, without ever 
making a mistake. 

In conclusion, it may be said that peculiar sensa- 
tions are often experienced, frequently of a character 
difficult to explain ; and many modern authors 
attach to them a marked value. In this manner it 
is possible for a woman to be satisfied at the mo- 
ment as to the change which has taken place ; yet 
the evidence is often deceptive, and sometimes 
nothing peculiar is noticed. 

From the period of conception the mother has no 
direct knowledge of the process that is going on 
within, excepting by the effects of the increasing 
pressure upon other parts, until ' quickening ' takes 
place, which belongs to another part of our subject. 

The signs and symptoms of pregnancy will be 
explained in full when we come to treat of the 
pregnant condition in a future chapter. 



HO THE WIFE. 



HOW TO RETAIN THE AFFECTIONS OF A 
HUSBAND. 

Ah ! this is a secret indeed ! — worth the wand of 
the magician, the lamp of Aladdin, or the wishing- 
cap of the fairy. What could any of these give in 
exchange for the love of a husband ? Yet this 
pearl of great price, how often is it treated as lightly 
and carelessly as if it was any bauble of Brumma- 
gem ! 

1 My husband,' we have heard young wives say, 
' why, it is his duty to love me. Why did he marry 
me if he is not going to love me, love me fondly 
love me ever ? ' 

Yes, we all know 

Love the gift, is love the debt. 

But in this world of ours it is often hard to get 
one's own ; and when got, our care must never cease, 
lest it be wrested from us. The plant you bought 
at the greenhouse, and that now blossoms on your 
window-sill, became yours by purchase, but it has 
required your daily care to keep it alive and per- 
suade it to unfold its blossoms. Infinitely more 
delicate is this plant of love. It, too, you purchased. 
You gave in exchange for it your own heart. It, 
too, you must daily tend with constant solicitude, 
lest it wither and die. 

In this country, some women think that anything 
is good enough to wear at home. They go about in 
slatternly morning dresses, unkempt hair, and 
slippers down at heel. ' Nobody will see me,' they 



HOW LOVE IS LOST. 131 

say, ' but my husband.' Let them learn a lesson 
from the wives of the Orient. 

In those countries a married woman never goes 
abroad except in long sombre robes and thick veil. 
An English lady visiting the wife of one of the 
wealthy merchants, found her always in full dress, 
with toilet as carefully arranged as if she were going 
to a ball. 

1 Why ! ' exclaimed the visitor, at length, ' is it 
possible that you take all this trouble to dress for 
nobody but your husband ? ' 

' Do, then,' asked the lady in reply, ' the wives of 
Englishmen dress for the sake of pleasing other 
men ? ' 

The visitor was mute. 

Not that we would wish our women to be for ever 
in full costume at home. That would be alarming. 
But she who neglects neatness in attire, and, above 
all, cleanliness of person, runs a great danger of 
creating a sentiment of disgust in those around her. 
Nothing is more repugnant to the husband's senses 
than bad odors, and, for reasons which every woman 
knows, women who neglect cleanliness are peculiarly 
liable to them. When simple means do not remove 
them, recourse should be promptly had to a medical 
adviser. 

So it is with bad breath. This sometimes arises 
from neglect of the teeth, sometimes from diseases 
of the stomach, lungs, etc. A man of delicate olfac- 
tories is almost forced to hold at arm's length a wife 
with a fetid breath. 

There are some women — we have treated several 
— who are plagued with a most disagreeable perspi- 

1 2 



132 THE WIFE. 

ration, especially about the feet, the arms, etc. Such 
should not marry until this is cured. It is a rule 
among army surgeons, to be chary about giving 
men their discharge from military service on sur- 
geon's certificate. But fetid feet are at times* so 
horribly offensive, that they are considered an 
allowable cause for discharge. No doubt, in some 
of our States they would be received as a valid 
ground for divorce ! — certainly with quite as much 
reason as many of the grounds usually alleged. 

In short, the judicious employment of all the 
harmless arts of the toilet, and of those numerous 
and effective means which modern science offers, 
to acquire, to preserve, and to embellish beauty, is 
a duty which woman, whether married or single, 
should never neglect. With very little trouble, the 
good looks and freshness of youth can be guarded 
almost to old age ; and, even when hopelessly gone, 
simple and harmless means are at hand to repair 
the injuries of years, or at least to conceal them. 
But this is an art which would require a whole 
volume to treat of, and which we cannot here touch 
upon. 

INHERITANCE. 

We now come to the consideration of a very won- 
derful subject, — that of inheritance. It is one of 
absorbing interest, both because of the curious facts 
it presents, and of the great practical bearing it has 
upon the welfare of every individual. 

In order to the better understanding of this matter, 
it is necessary at the outset to make a distinction 
between four kinds or varieties of inheritance. The 



EFFECTS OF INHERITANCE. 1 33 

most generally recognised is direct inheritance, — ■ 
that in which the children partake of the qualities 
of the father and mother. But a child may not re- 
semble either parent, while it bears a striking like- 
ness to an uncle or aunt. This constitutes indirect 
inheritance. Again, a child may be more like one 
of its grandparents than either its father or mother. 
Or, what is still more astonishing, it may display 
some of the characteristics possessed only by a re- 
mote ancestor. This form of inheritance is known 
by the scientific term atavism, derived from the 
Latin word atavus, meaning an ancestor. It is. 
curious to note in this connection that sometimes a 
son resembles more closely his maternal than his 
paternal grandsire in some male attribute, — as a 
peculiarity of beard, or certain diseases confined to 
the male sex. Though the mother cannot possess 
or exhibit such male qualities, she has transmitted 
them through her blood, from her father to 
her son. 

The fourth variety of inheritance is that in which 
the child resembles neither parent, but the first 
husband of its mother. A woman contracting a 
second marriage, transmits to the offspring of that 
marriage the peculiarities she has received through 
the first union. Breeders of stock know this ten- 
dency, and prevent their brood-mares, cows, or 
sheep from running with males of an inferior stock. 
Thus the diseases of a man may be transmitted to 
children which are not his own. Even though 
dead, he continues to exert an influence over the 
future offspring of his wife, by means of the inef- 
faceable impress he had made in the conjugal rela- 



134 THE WIFE. 

tion upon her whole system, as we have previously 
mentioned. The mother finds in the children of 
her second marriage 

' . . . the touch of a vanished hand, 
And the sound of a voice that is still.' 

A child may therefore suffer through the opera- 
tion of this mysterious and inexorable law, for sins 
committed not by its own father, but by the first 
husband of its mother. What a serious matter, 
then, is that relation between the sexes called mar- 
riage ! How far-reaching are its responsibilities ! 

A distinction must here be drawn between here- 
ditary transmission and the possession of qualities 
at birth, which have not been the result of any im- 
pression received from the system of father or 
mother, but due to mental influences or accidents 
operating through the mother. A child may be 
born idiotic or deformed, not because either parent 
or one of its ancestors was thus affected, but from 
the influence of some severe mental shock received 
by the mother during her pregnancy. This subject 
of maternal impressions will come up for separate 
consideration in the discussion of pregnancy. 
Again, a child may be epileptic, although there is 
no epilepsy in the family, simply because of the 
intoxication of the father or mother at the time of 
the intercourse resulting in conception. Such cases 
are not due to hereditary transmission, for that 
cannot be hereditary which has been possessed by 
neither the parents nor any other relatives. 

In considering the effects of inheritance, we will 
first pass in review those connected with the phy- 



HEREDITARY PHYSICAL QUALITIES. 1 35 

sical constitution. These are exceedingly common 
and universally known. Fortunately, not merely are 
evil qualities inherited, but beauty, health, vigor, 
and longevity also. 

BEAUTY. 

Good looks are characteristic of certain families. 
Alcibiades, the handsomest among the Grecians of 
his time, descended from ancestors remarkable for 
their beauty. So well and long has the desirable 
influence of inheritance in this respect been recog- 
nised, that there existed in Crete an ancient law 
which ordained that each year the most beautiful 
among the young men and women should be chosen 
and forced to marry, in order to perpetuate the type 
of their beauty. Irregularities of feature are trans- 
mitted from parent to child through many genera- 
tions. The aquiline nose has existed some cen- 
turies, and is yet hereditary in the Bourbon family. 
The hereditary under-lip of the House of Haps- 
burg is another example. When the poet Savage 
speaks of 

' The tenth transmitter of a foolish face,' 

he scarcely exaggerates what is often seen in 

families where some strongly-marked feature or 

expression is long predominant or reappears in 
successive generations. 

NECK AND LIMBS. 

The form and length of the neck and limbs are 
frequently hereditary, as is also the height of the 
body. The union of two tall persons engenders 

12 



I36 THE WIFE. 

tall children. The father of Frederick the Great 
secured for himself a regiment of men of gigantic 
stature, by permitting the marriage of his guards 
only with women of similar height. A tendency to 
obesity often appears in generation after generation 
of a family. Yet such cases are within the reach of 
medical art. 

COMPLEXION. 

Even the complexion is not exempt from this in- 
fluence. Blondes ordinarily procreate blondes, and 
dark parents have dark-skinned children. An 
union in marriage of fair and dark complexions 
results in an intermediate shade in the offspring. 
Not always, however ; for it has been asserted that 
the complexion chiefly follows that of the father. 
The offspring of a black father and a white mother 
is much darker than the progeny of a white father 
and a dark mother. In explanation of this fact, it 
has been said that the mother is not impressed by 
her own color, because she does not look upon 
herself, while the father's complexion attracts her 
attention, and thus gives a darker tinge to the 
offspring. Black hens frequently lay dark eggs ; 
but the reverse is more generally found to be 
the case. 

PHYSICAL QUALITIES TRANSMITTED BY EACH 
PARENT. 

In general, it may be said that there exists a 
tendency on the part of the father to transmit the 
external appearance, the configuration of the head 
and limbs, the peculiarities of the senses, and of the 



PECULIAR INFLUENCE OF EACH PARENT. 1 37 

skin and the muscular condition ; while the size of 
the body, and the general temperament or consti- 
tution of the child, are derived from the mother. 
Among animals, the mule, which is the produce of 
the male ass and the mare, is essentially a modified 
ass, having the general configuration of its sire, but 
the rounded trunk and larger size of its dam. On 
the other hand, the hinny, which is the offspring of 
the stallion and the she-ass, is essentially a modi- 
fied horse, having the general configuration of the 
horse, but being a much smaller animal than its 
sire, and therefore approaching the dam in size as 
well as in the comparative narrowness of its trunk. 
The operation of this principle, though general, is 
not universal, Exceptions may easily be cited. 
In almost every large family it will be observed 
that the likeness to the father predominates in 
some children, while others most resemble the 
mother. It is rare to meet with instances in which 
some distinctive traits of both parents may not be 
traced in the offspring. 

HAIR. 

Peculiarities in the colour and structure of the 
hair are transmitted. Darwin mentions a family in 
which, for many generations, some of the members 
had a single lock differently coloured from the rest 
of the hair. 

TEMPERAMENT. 

The law of inheritance rules in regard to the pro- 
duction of the temperament. The crossing of one 
temperament with another in marriage, produces a 
modification in the offspring generally advantageous. 



138 THE WIFE. 



FERTILITY. 

A peculiar aptitude for procreation is sometimes 
hereditary. The children of prolific parents are 
themselves prolific. It is related that a French 
peasant woman was confined ten times in fifteen 
years. Her pregnancies, always multiple, produced 
twenty-eight children. At her last confinement she 
had three daughters, who all lived, married, and 
gave birth to children, — the first to twenty-six, the 
second to thirty-one, and the third to twenty-seven. 
On the contrary, sometimes a tendency to sterility 
is found fixed upon certain families, from which 
they can only escape by the most assiduous care. 

LONGEVITY. 

In the vegetable kingdom, the oak inherits the 
power to live many years, while the peach-tree 
must die in a short time. In the animal kingdom, 
the robin becomes grey and old at ten years of 
age ; the rook caws lustily until a hundred. The 
ass is much longer-lived than the horse. The mule 
illustrates in a striking manner the hereditary ten- 
dency of longevity. It has the size of the horse, 
the long life of the ass. The weaker the ass, the 
larger, the stronger, and the shorter-lived and more 
horse-like the mule. It is also a curious and in- 
structive fact, that this animal is the toughest after 
it has passed the age of the horse : the inherited 
influence of the horse having been expended, the 
vitality and hardiness of the ass remain . 

It is universally conceded, that longevity is the 
privileged possession of some lineages. That 



THE HERITAGE OF LONG LIFE. 1 39 

famous instance of old age, Thomas Parr, the best 
authenticated on record, may be mentioned in illus- 
tration. It is vouched for by Harvey, the distin- 
guished discoverer of the circulation of the blood. 
Parr died in the reign of Charles the First, at the 
age of 152, after having lived under nine sovereigns 
of England. He left a daughter aged 127. His 
father had attained to a great age, and his great- 
grandson died at Cork at the age of 103. 

DEFORMITIES. 

Deformities are undoubtedly sometimes trans- 
mitted to the progeny. It is by no means rare to 
find that the immediate ancestors of those afflicted 
with superfluous fingers and toes, club-feet, or hare- 
lips, were also the subjects of these malformations. 
There are one or two families in Germany whose 
members pride themselves upon the possession of 
an extra thumb ; and there is an Arab chieftain 
whose ancestors have from time immemorial been 
distinguished by a double thumb upon the right 
hand. Darwin gives many similar instances. A 
case of curious displacement of the knee-pans is 
recorded, in which the father, sister, son, and the 
son of the half-brother by the same father, had all 
the same malformation. 

PERSONAL PECULIARITIES. 
Gait, gestures, voice, general bearing, are all in- 
herited. Peculiar manners, passing into tricks, are 
often transmitted, as in the case, often quoted, of the 
father who generally slept on his back with his right 
leg crossed over the left, and whose daughter, whilst 
12* 



140 THE WIFE. 

an infant in the cradle, followed exactly the same 
habit, though an attempt was made to cure her. 
Left-handedness is not unfrequently hereditary. It 
would be very easy to go on multiplying instances, 
but we forbear. 

HOW TO HAVE BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN. 

A practical question now naturally suggests itself. 
How can the vices of conformation be avoided, and 
beauty secured ? The art of having handsome chil- 
dren, known under the name of callipcedia, has re- 
ceived much attention, more, perhaps, in years gone 
by than of late. The noted Abbot Quillet wrote a 
book in Latin on the subject. Many other works, 
in which astrology plays a prominent part, were 
written on this art in the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries. 

We have already stated that w T ell-formed parents 
will transmit these qualities to their children, with 
scarcely an exception. Like begets like. Unfor- 
tunately, all parents are not beautiful. Yet all de- 
sire beautiful offspring. The body of the child can 
be influenced by the mind of the parent, particularly 
of the mother. A mind habitually filled with 
pleasant fancies and charming images is not with- 
out its effect upon the offspring. 

The statues of Apollo, Castor and Pollux, Venus, 
Hebe, and the other gods and goddesses which 
were so numerous in the gardens and public places 
in Greece, reproduced themselves in the sons and 
daughters of the passers-by. We know also that 
marriages contracted at an age too early or too late, 
are apt to give imperfectly-developed children. The 



THE HERITAGE OF BEAUTY. 141 

crossing of temperaments and of nationalities 
beautifies the offspring. The custom which has 
prevailed, in many countries, among the nobility, of 
purchasing the handsomest girls they could find 
for their wives, has laid the foundation of a higher 
type of features among the ruling classes. To ob- 
tain this desired end, conception should take place 
only when both parents are in the best physical 
condition, at the proper season of the year, and 
with mutual passion. (We have already hinted 
how this can be regulated.) During pregnancy the 
mother should often have some painting or engrav- 
ing representing cheerful and beautiful figures before 
her eyes, or often contemplate some graceful statue. 
She should avoid looking at, or thinking of ugly 
people, or those marked with disfiguring diseases. 
She should take every precaution to escape injury, 
fright, and disease of any kind, especially chicken- 
pox, erysipelas, or such disorders as leave marks on 
the person. She should keep herself well nourished, 
as want of food nearly always injures the child. 
She should avoid ungraceful positions and awkward 
attitudes, as by some mysterious sympathy these 
are impressed on the child she carries. Let her 
cultivate grace and beauty in herself at such a 
time, and she will endow her child with them. 
As anger and irritability leave imprints on the 
features, she should maintain serenity and calm- 
ness. 

INHERITANCE OF TALENT AND GENIUS. 

The effects of inheritance are perhaps more 
marked upon the mind than upon the body. This 



142 THE WIFE. 

need not surprise us. If the peculiar form of the 
brain can be transmitted, the mental attributes, the 
result of its organization, must necessarily also be 
transmitted. 

It is a matter of daily observation, that parents 
gifted with bright minds, cultivated by education, 
generally engender intelligent children; while the 
offspring of those steeped in ignorance are stupid 
from birth. It may be objected, that men the 
most remarkable in ancient or modern times, as 
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Shakspeare, Milton, 
Buffon, Cuvier, etc., have not transmitted their 
vast intellectual powers to their progeny. In ex- 
planation, it has been stated that what is known as 
genius is not transmissible. The creation of a man 
of genius seems to require a special effort of 
Nature, after which, as if fatigued, she reposes a 
long time before again making a similar effort. 
But it may well be doutfted whether even those 
complex mental attributes on which genius and 
talent depend are not inheritable, particularly when 
both parents are thus endowed. That distinguished 
men do not more frequently have distinguished 
sons, may readily be accounted for when it is recol- 
lected that the inherited character is due to the 
combined influence of both parents. The desirable 
qualities of the father may therefore be neutralized 
in the offspring by the opposite or defective quali- 
ties of the mother. That contrasts in the disposi- 
tion of parents are rather the rule than the 
exception, we have already shown. Every one 
tends to unite himself in friendship or love with a 
different character from his own, seeking thereby 



IS GENIUS HEREDITARY? 143 

to supplement the qualities in which he feels his 
own nature to be deficient. The mother, therefore, 
may weaken, and perhaps obliterate, the qualities 
transmitted by the father. Again, the influence of 
some remote ancestors may make itself felt upon 
the offspring through the operation of the law of 
atavism, before alluded to, and thus prevent the 
children from equalling their parents in their natural 
endowments. Notwithstanding the workings of 
these opposing forces, and others which might be 
mentioned, we find abundant illustration of the 
hereditary nature of talent and character. 

Of six hundred and five names occurring in a bio- 
graphical dictionary devoted to men distinguished 
as great founders and originators, between the years 
1453 and 1853, there were, as has been pointed out 
by Mr. Galton, no less than one hundred and two 
relationships, or one in six. Walford's Men of the 
Time contains an account of the distinguished men 
in England, the Continent, and America, then living. 
Under the letter A there are eighty-five names, and 
no less than twenty-five of these, or one in three 
and a half, have relatives also in the list ; twelve 
of them are brothers, and eleven fathers and sons. 
In Bryan's Dictionary of Painters, the letter A 
contains three hundred and ninety-one names of 
men, of whom sixty-five are near relatives, or one 
in six ; thirty-three of them are fathers and sons, 
and thirty are brothers. In Fetis's BiograpJde U)ii- 
verselle des Mnsiciens, the letter A contains five 
hundred and fifteen names, of which fifty are near 
relatives, or one in ten. Confining ourselves to 
literature alone, it has been found that it is one to 



144 THE WIFE. 

six and a half that a very distinguished literary man 
has a very distinguished literary relative ; and it is 
one to twenty-eight that the relation is father and 
son, or brother and brother, respectively. Among 
the thirty-nine Chancellors of England, sixteen had 
kinsmen of eminence ; thirteen of them had kins- 
men of great eminence. These thirteen out of 
thirty-nine, or one in three, are certainly remarkable 
instances of the influence of inheritance. A similar 
examination has been instituted in regard to the 
judges of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and 
other American States, with like results. The 
Greek poet ^Eschylus counted eight poets and four 
musicians among his ancestors. The greater part 
of the celebrated sculptors of ancient Greece des- 
cended from a family of sculptors. The same is 
true of the great painters. The sister of Mozart 
shared the musical talent of her brother. As there 
are reasons, to be detailed hereafter, for believing 
that the influence of the mother is even greater 
than that of the father, how vastly would the off- 
spring be improved if distinguished men united 
themselves in marriage to distinguished women for 
generation after generation ! 

INFLUENCE OF FATHERS OVER DAUGHTERS ; 
OF MOTHERS OVER SONS. 

We have already called attention to the parts of 
the physical organization transmitted by the father 
and by the mother. It would seem, moreover, that 
each parent exercises a special influence over the 
child according to its sex. The father transmits to 
the daughters the form of the head, the framework 



WHAT FATHERS GIVE THEIR CHILDREN. 1 45 

of the chest and of the superior extremities, while 
the conformation of the lower portion of the body 
and the inferior extremities is transmitted by the 
mother. With the sons this is reversed. They 
derive from the mother the shape of the head and 
of the superior extremities, and resemble the father 
in the trunk and inferior extremities. From this it 
therefore results, that boys procreated by intelligent 
women will be intelligent, and that girls procreated 
by fathers of talent will inherit their mental capa- 
city. The mothers of a nation, though unseen and 
unacknowledged in the halls of legislation, deter- 
mine in this subtle manner the character of the 
laws. 

History informs us that the greater part of the 
women who have been celebrated for their intelli- 
gence, reflected the genius of their fathers. Arete, 
the most celebrated woman of her time, on account 
of the extent of her knowledge, was the daughter 
of the distinguished philosopher Aristippus, disciple 
of Socrates. Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, 
was a daughter of Scipio. The daughter of the 
Roman emperor Caligula was as cruel as her father. 
Marcus Aurelius inherited the virtues of his mother, 
and Commodus the vices of his. Charlemagne 
shut his eyes upon the faults of his daughters, 
because they recalled his own. Gengis-Khan, the 
renowned Asiatic conqueror, had for his mother a 
warlike woman. Tamerlane, the greatest warrior 
of the fourteenth century, was descended from 
Gengis-Khan by the female side. Catherine de 
Medicis was as crafty and deceitful as .her father, 
and more superstitious and cruel. She had two 



I46 THE WIFE. 

sons worthy of herself, — Charles IX., who shot the 
Protestants, and Henry III., who assassinated the 
Guises. Her daughter, Margaret of Valois, recalled 
her father by her gentle manners. The cruel deeds 
of Alexander VI., the dark records of which will 
for ever stain the pages of history, are only rivalled 
in atrocity by those of his children, the infamous 
Borgias. Arete, Hypatia, Madame de Stael, 
and George Sand, — all four had philosophers for 
their fathers. The mother of Bernardo Tasso had 
the gift of poetry. Buffon often speaks of the rich 
imagination of his mother. The poet Burns, 'Rare 
Ben Jonson,' Goethe, Walter Scott, Byron, and 
Lamartine, — all were born of women remarkable 
for their vivacity and brilliancy of language. Byron, 
in his journal, attributes his hypochondria to a here- 
ditary taint derived from his mother, who was its 
victim in its most furious form ; and her father 
'was strongly suspected of suicide.' He was said 
to have resembled more his maternal grandfather 
than any of his father's family. The daughter of 
Moliere was like her father in her wit and humor. 
Beethoven had for a maternal grandmother an ex- 
cellent musician. The mother of Mozart gave the 
first lessons ' to her son. A crowd of composers 
have descended from John Sebastian Bach, who 
long stood unrivalled as a performer on the organ, 
and composer for that instrument. It may be re- 
marked here, that it is almost invariably true that 
the ability or inability to acquire a knowledge of 
music is derived from the ancestry. Parents who 
cannot turn a tune or tell one note from another, 
bring forth children equally unmoved 'with concord 



TRAITS WHICH WE INHERIT. 1 47 

of sweet sounds.' Examples could easily be ad- 
duced at still greater length, illustrating the direct 
influence of the father over the daughter, and 
of the mother over the son. Those given will 
suffice. 

INFLUENCE OF EDUCATION OVER INHERITED 
QUALITIES. 

In correcting the evil effects of inheritance on 
the mind, education plays a very important part. 
A child born with a tendency to some vice or intel- 
lectual trait,, may have this tendency entirely over- 
come, or at least modified, by training. So, also, 
virtues implanted by nature may be lost during the 
plastic days of youth, in consequence of bad asso- 
ciations and bad habits. 

Education can therefore do much to alter in- 
herited mental and moral qualities. Can it be 
invoked to prevent the transmission of undesirable 
traits, and secure the good ? Everything that we 
have at birth is a heritage from our ancestors. 
Can virtuous habits be transmitted ? Can we 
secure virtues in our children by possessing them 
ourselves ? Science sadly says, through her latest 
votaries, that we are scarcely more than passive 
transmitters of a nature we have received, and 
which we have no power to modify. It is only 
after exposure during several generations to changed 
conditions or habits, that any modification in the 
offspring ensues. The son of an old soldier learns 
his drill no more quickly than the son of an artisan. 
We must therefore come to the conclusion with 
Mr. Galton, that to a great extent our own embryos 
13 K 2 



I48 ' THE WIFE. 

have sprung immediately from the embryos whence 
our parents were developed, and these from the 
embryos of their parents, and so on for ever. 
Hence we are still barbarians in our nature. We 
show it in a thousand ways. Children, who love 
to dig and play in the dirt, have inherited that 
instinct from untold generations of ancestors. Our 
remote forefathers were barbarians, who dug with 
their nails to get at the roots on which they lived. 
The delicately-reared child reverts to primeval 
habits. In like manner, the silk-haired, parlor- 
nurtured spaniel springs from the caressing arms of 
its mistress, to revel in the filth of the roadside. 
It is the breaking out of inherited instinct. 

TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE. 

Perhaps the most important part of the subject 
of inheritance, is that which remains for us to con- 
sider in relation to the transmission of disease, or 
of a predisposition to it. 

Consumption, — that dread foe of modern life, — 
is the most frequently encountered of all affections 
as the result of inherited predisposition. Indeed 
some of the most eminent physicians have believed 
it is never produced in any other way. Heart 
disease, disease of the throat, excessive obesity, 
affections of the skin, asthma, disorders of the brain 
and nervous system, gout, rheumatism, and cancer, 
are all hereditary. A tendency to bleed frequently, 
profusely and uncontrollably, from trifling wounds, 
is often met with as a family affection. 

The inheritance of diseased conditions is also in- 
fluenced by the sex. A parent may transmit disease 



THE TRANSMISSION OF DEFORMITIES. 1 49 

exclusively to children of the same sex, or exclu- 
sively to those of the opposite sex. Thus, a horn- 
like projection on the skin peculiar to the Lambert 
family was transmitted from the father to his sons 
and grandsons alone. So mothers have through 
several generations transmitted to their daughters 
alone supernumerary fingers, color-blindness, and 
other deformities and diseases. As a general rule, 
any disease acquired during the life of either parent, 
strongly tends to be inherited by the offspring of 
the same sex rather than the opposite. We have 
spoken of the apparently reverse tendency in regard 
to the transmission of genius and talent. 

ARE MUTILATIONS INHERITABLE ? 

How, it may be inquired, is it in regard to the 
inheritance of parts mutilated and altered by inju- 
ries and disease during the life of either parent ? 
In some cases mutilations have been practised for 
many generations, without any inherited result. 
Different races of men have knocked out their 
upper teeth, cut off the joints of their fingers, made 
immense holes through their ears and nostrils, and 
deep gashes in various parts of their bodies, and 
yet there is no reason for supposing that these 
mutilations have been inherited. The Comprachicos, 
a hideous and strange association of men and 
women, existed in the seventeenth century, whose 
business it was to buy children and make of them 
monsters. Victor Hugo, in a recent work, has 
graphically told how they took a face and made of 
it a snout, how they bent down growth, kneaded the 
physiognomy, distorted the eyes, and in other ways 



I50 THE WIFE. 

disfigured 'the human form divine,' in order to 
make fantastic playthings for the amusement of the 
noble-born. But history does not state that these 
deformities were inherited ; certainly no race of 
monsters has resulted. The pits from small-pox 
are not inherited, though many successive genera- 
tions must have been thus pitted by that disease 
before the beneficent discover/ of the immortal 
Jenner.' Children born with scars left by pus- 
tules have had small-pox in the womb, acquired 
through the system of the mother. On the other 
hand, the lower animals, cats, dogs, and horses, 
which have had their tails and legs artificially 
altered or injured, have produced offspring with the 
same condition of parts. A man who had his little 
finger on the right hand almost cut off, and which 
in consequence grew crooked, had sons with the 
same finger on the same hand similarly crooked. 
The eminent physiologist Dr. Brown-Sequard men- 
tions, *that many young guinea-pigs inherited an 
epileptic tendency from parents which had been 
subjected to an operation at his hands resulting in 
the artificial production of fits ; while a large num- 
ber of guinea-pigs bred from animals which had not 
been operated on were not thus affected. At any 
rate, it cannot but be admitted that injuries and 
mutilations which cause disease, are occasionally 
inherited. But many cases of deformities existing 
at birth, as hare-lip, are not due to inheritance, 
although present in the father. They arise from a 
change effected in the child while in the womb, 
through an impression made upon the mind of the 
mother, as will be shown hereafter. 



HOW TO ESCAPE CONSUMPTION. 15 I 

LATE MANIFESTATIONS OF THE EFFECTS OF 
INHERITANCE. 

Not only are diseases inherited which make their 
appearance at birth, but those which defer their ex- 
hibition until a certain period of life corresponding 
with that at which they showed themselves in the 
parents. Thus in the Lambert family, before re- 
ferred to, the porcupine excrescence on the skin 
began to grow in the father and sons at the same 
age, namely, about nine weeks after birth. In an 
extraordinary hairy family, which has been de- 
scribed, children were produced during three gene- 
rations with hairy ears : in the father, the hair 
began to grow over his body at six years old ; in 
his daughter somewhat earlier, namely, at one year ; 
and in both generations the milk teeth appeared 
late in life, the permanent teeth being deficient. 
Greyness of hair at an unusually early age has been 
transmitted in some families. So, also, has the pre- 
mature appearance of baldness. 

HOW TO AVOID THE TENDENCY OF INHERITANCE. 

These facts suggest the practical consideration, 
that in those diseases the predisposition to which 
alone is inherited, and which break out only after a 
lapse of time, it is often altogether possible to pre- 
vent the predisposition being developed into posi- 
tive disease. Thus, for instance, the inherited 
tendency to consumption remains asleep in the sys- 
tem until about the age of puberty, or later. There- 
fore, by the use of a diet in which animal food 

forms a large portion, properly regulated, and 
13* 



152 THE WIFE. 

systematic exercise in the open air, the practice of 
the long inhalations before recommended, warm, 
comfortable clothing, together with a residence, if 
practicable, during the changeable and inclement 
seasons of the year, in an equable climate, we can 
often entirely arrest the development of the disease. 
Prevention here is not only better than cure, but 
often all that is possible. Those in whom the 
disease has become active, must too often, like those 
who entered Dante's infernal regions, ' abandon 
hope.' Let our words of caution therefore be 
heeded. 

When there is reason to believe that an individual 
possesses an inherent tendency to any disease, it is 
the duty of the medical adviser to study the consti- 
tution of the patient thoroughly, and after such 
study to recommend those measures of prevention 
best suited to avert the threatened disorder. Above 
all, let the physician look closely to the child at the 
period of life when any grave constitutional inherit- 
able disease attacked the parent. This supervision 
should be carried into adult years, for there are in- 
stances on record of inherited diseases coming on at 
an advanced age, as in that of a grandfather, father, 
and son, who all became insane and committed 
suicide near their fiftieth year. Gout, apoplexy, 
insanity, chronic disease of the heart, epilepsy, con- 
sumption, asthma, and other diseases, are all more 
or less under the control of preventive measures. 
Some hereditary diseases, such as idiocy and cancer, 
we are impotent to prevent, in the present state of 
our knowledge. 

A singular fact in connection with the transmis- 



WHY WOMEN OUTNUMBER MEN. 1 53 

sion of disease is the readiness with which a whole 
generation is passed over, the affection appearing in 
the next. A father or mother with consumption 
may in some instances have healthy children, but 
the grandchildren will die of the disease. Nature 
kindly favors one generation, but only at the ex- 
pense of the next. 

Some diseases require, in addition to the general 
means of prevention to be found in a strict obser- 
vance of the laws of health, some special measures 
in order to effectually ward off their appearance. 
But the extent of this work will not admit of their 
discussion. Already, indeed, have we unduly, per- 
haps, extended our remarks upon inheritance. The 
interest and importance of the facts must be our 
justification. 

WHY ARE WOMEN REDUNDANT? 

It cannot be without interest to look into the re- 
lative proportion of men and women now living. It 
will interest us still more to inquire into the reason 
why one sex preponderates over the other in num- 
bers. This done, we will answer the question, Is the 
production of sex at all under the influence of the 
human will ? 

The female sex is the more numerous in all 
thickly populated parts of the world where we 
have trustworthy statistics. In Austria, England, 
and Wales, there are nearly one hundred and five 
women for every one hundred men. In Sweden 
they are as one hundred and nine to one hundred. 
In all cities the disproportion is greater than in 
the country. In London there are one hundred 



154 THE WIFE. 

and thirteen women to every one hundred men ; 
and in the large towns of Sweden they stand as 
one hundred and sixteen to one hundred. 

This is not true, however, of newly-populated 
regions. The relative difference is reversed in re- 
cent and thinly-settled localities. In our Western 
States, for instance, the number of the men ex- 
ceeds that of the women. In California they are 
as three to one ; in Nevada as eight to one ; in 
Colorado, twenty to one. In the State of Illinois 
there were, according to a recent United States 
census, ninety-three thousand more men than 
women. In Massachusetts, on the contrary, there 
are between fifty and sixty thousand more women 
than men. 

The disproportion of men to women in new 
countries is due to the disinclination of women to 
emigrate. They are also unfitted for the hardships 
of pioneer life. 

How is this general preponderance in the number 
of women produced ? Is it because there are more 
girls born than boys ? Not at all. The statistics 
of over fifty-eight millions of persons show that there 
are one hundred and six living boys born to every 
one hundred girls. In the state of Rhode Island, 
for instance, the proportion for three years, from 
1853 to 1855, was one thousand and sixty-four boys 
born to one thousand girls. But now we meet with 
the wonderful arrangement of nature, that a larger 
proportional number of male infants die during the 
first year of their lives than of females. In the 
second year, the mortality, though less excessive, 
still remains far greater on the male side. It sub- 



MORE BOYS BORN THAN GIRLS. 1 55 

sequently decreases, and at the age of four or five 
years is nearly equal for both sexes. In after life, 
from the age of fifteen to forty, the mortality is 
something greater among women, but not suffi- 
ciently so to make the number of the two sexes 
equal. The greater tendency of male offspring to 
die early is seen even before birth, for more male 
children are still-born than female, — namely, as 
three to two. For this reason, the term ' the stronger 
sex,' applied to men, has been regarded by some 
authors as a misnomer. They are physically weaker 
in early life, and succumb more readily to noxious 
influences. . 

Having thus pointed out that there are more 
women actually living in the world than men, 
although a larger number of boys are born than 
girls, we will consider for a moment some of the 
laws of nature which determine the number of the 
sexes. Without giving the figures, — which would 
make dry reading, — we will state in brief the con- 
clusions derived from many observations, extend- 
ing over many years and many nationalities. The 
relative age of the parents has an especial influence 
upon the sex of the children. Seniority on the 
father's side gives excess of male offspring. Equality 
in the parents' age gives a slight preponderance of 
female offspring. Seniority on the mother's side 
gives excess of female offspring. This tallies with 
the fact that in all civilized countries, as has been 
stated, the proportion of male births is greater than 
that of females ; for, in accordance with the 
customs of society, the husband is generally older 
than the wife. A curious instance, in confirmation 



156 THE WIFE. 

of this law, has recently come under our observa- 
tion. A patient, married for the second time, is ten 
years older than her husband. She has two children 
by him, both girls. Singular to relate, her former 
husband was ten years older than herself, and by 
him she had four children, of whom three were 
boys, the fourth (a girl) having a twin brother. 

Still, the relative age is not the sole cause which 
fixes the sex of the child. Its operation is some- 
times overruled by conflicting agencies. In some 
districts of Norway, for example, there has been a 
constant deficiency in boys, while in others the re- 
verse has been the case. The circumstance is well 
known, that after great wars, and sometimes epi- 
demics, in which a disproportionate number of men 
have died, more boys are born than usual. Men 
who pass a sedentary life, and especially scholars 
who exhaust their nervous force to a great extent, 
beget more girls than boys. So, also, a very ad- 
vanced age on the man's side diminishes the number 
of males among the offspring. The quantity and 
the quality of the food ; the elevation of the abode ; 
the conditions of temperature ; the parents' mode 
of life, rank, religious belief, frequency of sexual in- 
tercourse, — have all been shown to be causes con- 
tributing to the disproportion of the sexes, besides 
the relative ages of the parents. 

Some writers have stated thaf a southerly or 
warm and humid constitution of the year is most 
favorable to the birth of female infants, while in 
cold and dry years most males are produced. This 
statement has not been supported by trustworthy 
statistics in regard to the human race, but in respect 



TO HAVE BOYS OR GIRLS. 1 57 

of domestic animals the agriculturists of France have 
long observed that the season has much to do with 
the sex. When the weather is dry and cold, and 
the wind northerly, mares, ewes, and heifers pro- 
duce more males than when the opposite meteoro- 
logical condition prevails. 

The saying among nurses, that ' This is the year 
for sons or daughters,' is based upon the erroneous 
supposition that mothers bring forth more male in- 
fants in one year than in another. 

That, however, which concerns us the most in this 
connection, is the question : 

CAN THE SEXES BE PRODUCED AT WILL? 

This question was asked many centuries ago. It 
was a hard one, and remained without a satisfactory 
answer until quite recently. Science has at last re- 
plied to it with authority. M. Thury, Professor in 
the Academy of Geneva, has shown how males and 
females may be produced in accordance with our 
wishes. 

Some families are most anxious for male off- 
spring, others ardently desire daughters. And 
would it not often be a matter of national concern 
to control the percentage of sexes in the popula- 
tion ? Is it not a ' consummation most devoutly 
to be wished,' to bring about that Utopian condi- 
tion when there would be no sighing maids at 
home, nor want of warriors in the field ? The dis- 
cussion of this subject is therefore important and 
allowable. 

It has been observed that queen-bees lay female 
eggs first, and male eggs afterwards. So with 



158 THE WIFE. 

hens : the first-laid eggs give female, the last male 
products. Mares shown the stallion late in their 
periods, drop horse-colts rather than fillies. 
' Professor Thury, from the consideration of these 
and other like facts, formed this law for stock- 
raisers : ' If you wish to produce females, give the 
male at the first signs of heat ; if you wish males, 
give him at the end of the heat.' But it is easy to 
form a theory. How was this law sustained in 
practice ? We have now in our possession the 
certificate of a Swiss stock -grower, son of the 
President of the Swiss Agricultural Society, Can- 
ton de Vaud, under date of February 1867, which 
says : 

' In the first place, on twenty- two successive oc- 
casions I desired to have heifers. My cows were of 
Schurtz breed, and my bull a pure Durham. I 
succeeded in these cases. Having bought a pure 
Durham cow, it was very important for me to have 
a new bull, to supersede the one I had bought at 
great expense, without leaving to chance the pro- 
duction of a male. So I followed accordingly the 
prescription of Professor Thury, and the success 
has proved once more the truth of the law. I have 
obtained from my Durham bull six more bulls 
(Schurtz-Durham cross) for fieldwork ; and having 
chosen cows of the same color and height, I ob- 
tained perfect matches of oxen. My herd amounted 
to forty cows of every age. 

' In short, I have made in all twenty-nine experi- 
ments after the new method, and in every one I 
succeeded in the production of what I was looking 
for — male and female. I had not one single 



PROF. THURY' S LAW. 1 59 

failure. All the experiments have been made by 
myself, without any other person's intervention ; 
consequently, I do declare that I consider as real 
and certainly perfect the method of Professor 
Thury.' 

A perfectly trustworthy observer communicates 
to the Medical and Surgical Reporter of Philadel- 
phia for May 2, 1868, the results of similar experi- 
ments on animals, with like conclusions. 

The plan of M. Thury was also tried on the 
farms of the late Emperor of the French, with, it 
is asserted, the most unvarying success. 

What is the result of the application of this law 
to the human race ? Dr. F. J. W. Packman, of 
Wimborne, has stated in the Lancet, that, ' in the 
human female, conception in the first half of the 
time between menstrual periods produces female 
offspring, and male in the latter. When a female 
has gone beyond the time she calculated upon, it 
will generally turn out to be a boy.' 

In the Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Re- 
porter for February 8, 1868, a respectable physician 
writes that, in numerous instances that have come 
under his observation, Professor Thury's theory has 
proved correct, 4 Whenever intercourse has taken 
place in from two to six days after the cessation 
of the menses, girls have been produced ; and 
whenever intercourse has taken place in from nine 
to twelve days after the cessation of the menses, 
boys have been produced. In every case I have 
ascertained not only the date at which the mother 
placed conception, but also the time when the 

menses ceased, the date of the first and subsequent 
14 



160 THE WIFE. 

intercourse for a month or more after the cessation 
of the menses,' etc. 

Again, a physician writes to the same journal for 
June 20, 1868, recording the result of his own ex- 
perience. 

A farmer in Louisiana states, in the Turf y Field, 
and Farm, in support of this law, that ' I have 
already been able in many cases to guess with cer- 
tainty the sex of a future infant. More than thirty 
times, among my friends, I have predicted the sex 
of a child before its birth, and the event proved 
nearly every time that I was right.' 

The wife, therefore, who would wish, as Macbeth 
desired of his, to 

' Bring forth men-children only,' 

should avoid exposing herself to conception during 
the early part of the time between her menstrual 
periods. 

The prediction of the sex of the child before 
birth can now be with some accuracy made by the 
intelligent and skilful physician. The method of 
doing so will be mentioned in treating of preg- 
nancy. 

TWIN-BEARING. 

As a rule, a woman has one child at a time. 
Twins, when they occur, are looked upon with dis- 
favor by most people. There is a popular notion 
that they are apt to be wanting in physical and 
mental vigor. This opinion is not without founda- 
tion. A careful scientific examination of the sub- 
ject has shown, that of imbeciles and idiots a much 



TWIN-BTR THS. 1 6 1 

larger proportion is actually found among the twins 
born than in the general community. In families 
where twinning is frequent, bodily deformities like- 
wise occur with frequency. Among the relatives 
of imbeciles and idiots, twin-bearing is common. 
In fact, the whole history of twin-births is of an 
exceptional character, indicating imperfect develop- 
ment and feeble organization in the product, and 
leading us to regard twins in the human species as 
a departure from the physiological rule, and there- 
fore injurious to all concerned. Monsters born 
without brains have rarely occurred except among 
twins. 

The birth of twins occurs once in about eighty 
deliveries. A woman is more apt to have no chil- 
dren than to have more than one at a time. In 
view of the increased danger to both mother and 
child, this rarity of a plural birth is fortunate. 

WHY ARE TWINS BORN ? 

What are the causes or favouring circumstances 
bringing about this abnormal child-bearing ? For 
it is brought about by the operation of laws. It is 
not an accident. There are no accidents in nature. 
By some it is supposed to be due to the mother, by 
some to the father. There are facts in favour of 
both opinions. Certain women married succes- 
sively to several men have always had twins, while 
their husbands with other wives have determined 
single births. Certain men have presented the 
same phenomenon. We can scarcely cite an 
example more astonishing than that of a country- 
man who was presented to the Empress of Russia 



1 62 THE WIFE. 

in 1755. He had had two wives. The first had 
fifty-seven children in twenty-one confinements ; 
the second, thirty-three in thirteen. All the con- 
finements had been quadruple, triple, or double. 
A case has come under our own observation in 
which the bearing of twins has seemed to be due to 
a constitutional cause. The wife has nine children. 
The first was a single birth, a girl ; the others were 
all twin-births, and boys. 

It has been asserted that compound pregnancies 
are more frequent in certain years than in others. 
But that which seems to exert the greatest actual 
influence over the production of twins is the age of 
the mother. Very extensive statistics have demon- 
strated that, from the earliest child-bearing period 
until the age of forty is reached, the fertility of 
mothers in twins gradually increases. Between the 
ages of twenty and thirty, fewest wives have twins. 
The average age of the twin-bearer is older than 
the general run of bearers. It is well known that 
by far the greater number of twins are born of 
elderly women. While three-fifths of all births 
occur among women under thirty years of age, 
three-fifths of all the twins are born to those over 
thirty years of age. Newly-married women are 
more likely to have twins at the first labour the 
older they are. The chance that a young wife 
from fifteen to nineteen shall bear twins is only as 
one to one hundred and eighty-nine ; from thirty- 
five to thirty-nine the chance is as one to forty-five, 
— that is, the wives married youngest have fewest 
twins ; and there is an increase as age advances, 
until forty is reached. 



PLURAL BLRTHS. 1 63 

Race seems to have some influence over plural 
births. They occur relatively oftener among the 
Irish than among the English. 

INFLUENCE OF TWIN-BEARING ON SIZE OF 
FAMILIES. 

Do women bearing twins have in the end larger 
families than those never having but one at a time? 
Popular belief would answer this question in the 
affirmative. Such a reply would also seem to re- 
ceive support from the fact, well established, that 
twins are more frequently additions to an already 
considerable family than they are either the first of 
a family or additional to a small family. But 
statistics have not answered this question as yet 
positively. They seem, however, in favour of the 
supposition that twin-bearing women have larger 
families than their neighbors. 

Women are more apt to have twins in their first 
pregnancy than any other, but after the second con- 
finement the bearing of twins increases in frequency 
with the number of the pregnancy. It becomes, 
therefore, an indication of an excessive family, and 
is to be deplored. 

MORE THAN TWO CHILDREN AT A BIRTH. 

Cases of the birth of more than two children at a 
time are still less frequently met with than twins. 
They are scarcely ever encountered, excepting in 
women who have passed their thirtieth year. Such 
cases are all more or less unfortunate both for the 
mother and the children. 

14* L2 



164 THE WIFE. 



THREE AT A BIRTH. 



The births of triplets are not exclusively confined 
to women above thirty years, but in those younger 
they are so rare as to be great curiosities. Neither 
are they apt to occur in the first pregnancy. In 
this respect they differ from twins, who, as has just 
been said, are peculiarly prone to make their ap- 
pearance at the first childbirth. Only four cases of 
treble births occurred among the 36,000 accouche- 
ments which have taken place in the Hospice de 
Maternite of Paris in a determined time. Out of 
48,000 cases of labor in the Royal Maternity 
Charity in London, only three triplets occurred. 
History informs us that the three Roman brothers, 
the Horatii, were triplets. They fought and con- 
quered the three Curiatii of Alba (66y B.C.) who 
were likewise triplets. 

As an interesting fact in connection with this 
subject, we may mention that in the St. Petersburg 
Midwives' Institute, between 1845-59, there were 
three women admitted, who, in their fifteenth preg- 
nancies, had triplets, and each had triplets three" 
times in succession. Happily, the fifteenth preg- 
nancy is not reached by most women. 

FOUR AT A BIRTH. 
Instances of quadruplets are fewer than triplets. 
But four vigorous infants have been born at one 
birth. 

FIVE AT A BIRTH. 

The birth of five living children at a time is very 
exceptional, and is usually fatal to the offspring. 



MARVELLOUS BLRTHS. 165 

A remarkable case of this kind is reported in a late 
medical journal. A woman aged thirty, the wife 
of a laborer, and the mother of six children, was 
taken in labor about the seventh month of her 
pregnancy. Five children, and all alive, were given 
birth to, — three boys and two girls. Four of the 
children survived an hour, and died within a few 
moments of each other. The fifth, a female, and 
the last born, lived six hours, and was so vigorous 
that, notwithstanding its diminutive size, hopes were 
entertained of its surviving. 

Another case is reported in a recent French 
medical journal. The woman was forty years ""old. 
She had had twins once, and single children five 
times. On her seventh pregnancy, when five months 
gone, she was as large as women usually are at the 
end of their full term. At the close of the month 
she was delivered of five children. They were all 
born alive, and lived from four to seven minutes. 
All five children were males, well built and as well 
developed as foetuses of five and one-half months 
usually are in a single birth. The woman made a 
good recovery. Other cases of five at a birth 
might be quoted. They are known to medical 
science as very singular and noteworthy occur- 
rences. 

INCREDIBLE NUMBERS. 

Some books speak of seven, eight, nine, ten, and 
more, children at a birth. But these statements are 
so marvellous, so incredible, and unsupported by 
proper testimony, that they do not merit any de- 
gree of confidence. The climax of such extraor- 



1 66 THE WIFE. 

dinary assertions is reached, and a good illustration 
of the credulity of the seventeenth century fur- 
nished, by a writer named Goftr. This traveller, 
in 1630, saw a tablet in a church at Leusdown 
(Lausdunum), about five miles from the Hague, 
with an inscription stating that a certain illustrious 
countess, whose name and family he records, brought 
forth at one birth, in the fortieth year of her age, in 
the yea A - 1276, 365 infants. They were all baptized 
by Guido, the Suffragan. The males were called 
John, and the females Elizabeth. They all, with 
their mother, died on the same day, and were buried 
in the above-mentioned church. This monstrous 
birth was said to have been caused by the sin of 
the countess in insulting a poor woman with twins 
in her arms, who prayed that her insulter might 
have at one birth the same number of children as 
there were days in the year. Of course, notwith- 
standing the story being attested by a tablet in a 
church, it must be placed among the many other 
instances of superstition afforded by an ignorant 
and credulous era. 

We may remark, in closing this subject, that 
fewer plural births come to maturity than pregnan- 
cies with single children. Miscarriages are compa- 
ratively more frequent in such pregnancies than in 
ordinary ones. 



PREGNANCY. 



VENERATION FOR THE PREGNANT. 

We have been considering woman hitherto as 
maiden and wife. She now approaches the sacred 
threshold of maternity. She is with child. In no 
period of her life is she the subject of an interest so 
profound and general. The young virgin and the 
new wife have pleased by their grace, spirit, and 
beauty. The pregnant wife is an object of active 
benevolence and religious respect. It is interesting 
to note how, at all times and in all countries, she 
has been treated with considerate kindness and 
great deference. She has been made the subject of 
public veneration, and sometimes even of religious 
worship. At Athens and at Carthage the murderer 
escaped from the sword of justice if he sought re- 
fuge in the house of a pregnant woman. The Jews 
allowed her to eat forbidden meats. The laws of 
Moses pronounced the penalty of death against all 
those who by bad treatment or any act of vio- 
lence caused a woman to abort. Lycurgus com- 
pared women who died in pregnancy to the brave 
dead on the field of honour, and accorded to them 
sepulchral inscriptions. In ancient Rome, where 
all citizens were obliged to rise and stand during 
the passage of a magistrate, wives were excused 
from rendering this mark of respect, for the reason 



1 68 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

that the exertion and hurry of the movement might 
be injurious to them in the state in which they were 
supposed to be. In the kingdom of Pannonia all 
enceinte women were in such veneration, that a man 
meeting one on the road was obliged, under penalty 
of a fine, to turn back and accompany and protect 
her to her place of destination. The Catholic 
Church has in all times exempted pregnant wives 
from fasts. The Egyptians decreed, and in most 
Christian countries the law at the present time ob- 
tains, that if a woman shall be convicted of. an 
offence the punishment of which is death, the sen- 
tence shall not be executed if it be proved that she 
is pregnant. 

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF PREGNANCY. 

I. The sign most commonly relied upon is the ces- 
sation of the monthly sickness. The wife who misses 
the expected return of her illness, is apt to conclude 
that conception has taken place. This sign is far 
from being an infallible one. 

It should be borne in mind that young married 
women sometimes have a slight show for two or 
three periods after their first impregnation. Igno- 
rance of this fact has very frequently led to a mis- 
calculation of the time of confinement. On the 
other hand, the menses will sometimes become 
arrested soon after marriage, and continue so for 
one or two months, without there existing any 
pregnancy. The temporary disappearance of the 
monthly sickness in such cases is due to the pro- 
found impression made upon the system by the 
new relations of the individual. 



SIGNS OF PREGNANCY. 1 69 

It not unfrequently happens that menstruation 
continues with regularity during the whole period 
of pregnancy. Exceptional cases are given by 
distinguished writers on midwifery, of women men- 
struating during their pregnancy, and at no other 
time. 

As a general rule, when a healthy wife misses 
her monthly sickness, she is pregnant. But this 
symptom, though a strong one, must be supported 
by others before it can be regarded as establishing 
anything. 

2. Morning sickness is a very common, a very 
early, and, in the opinion of most mothers, a very 
conclusive symptom of pregnancy. We have already 
had occasion to remark that it sometimes makes its 
appearance almost simultaneously with conception. 
It usually comes on in the first few weeks, and con- 
tinues until the third or fourth month or until 
quickening. This symptom is apt to be a trouble- 
some one. Often the vomiting is slight, and imme- 
diately followed by relief. But it may produce 
violent and ineffectual straining for some time. It 
is, however, not to be called a disease : unless it 
proceeds to an exhausting degree, it must be looked 
upon as favorable and salutary. There is an old 
and true proverb, that ' a sick pregnancy is a safe 
one.' The absence of nausea and vomiting is a source 
of danger to the mother and child. Women who 
habitually fail to experience them, are exceedingly 
apt to miscarry. In such cases medical skill should 
be invoked to bring about the return of these symp- 
toms, of such importance to healthful pregnancy. 

Morning sickness is therefore a very general, 



I/O THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

almost constant, accompaniment of the pregnant 
condition ; and great dependence may be placed 
upon it as a sign. 

3. Changes in the breasts are valuable as symp- 
toms. They become larger and firmer, and- the 
seat of a pricking or stinging sensation. The nip- 
ples are swollen, prominent, and sometimes sore or 
painful. The veins beneath the skin appear more 
conspicuous, and of a deeper blue than ordinary. 
The peculiar circles o£ rose-coloured skin which 
surround the nipples increase in extent, change to 
a darker color, and become covered with a number 
of little elevations. Subsequently, numerous mot- 
tled patches, or round spots of a whitish hue, scatter 
themselves over the outer part of this circle. 

The time at which these changes make their ap- 
pearance is variable. They may begin to develope 
themselves in two or three weeks, oftener not until 
the second or third month, and in women of a de- 
licate build, sometimes not until the Jatter end of 
pregnancy. Occasionally no alteration whatever 
occurs in the breasts until after confinement, in 
which cases the secretion of milk is delayed for 
several days after the birth of the child. In some 
rare instances the breasts never assume maternal 
proportions, and the mother is debarred from the 
pleasure and duty of nursing her own child. 

4. Quickening is the next symptom we will con- 
sider. By this term is meant the arrival of that 
time when the mother first becomes conscious by 
the movements of the child of its presence. The 
ancients thought that then life was imparted to the 
new being. Modern physiology emphatically con- 



SIGNS OF PREGNANCY. 171 

demns this absurdity. The embryo is as much 
alive in the very earliest moments of pregnancy as 
at any future stage of its existence. Let every 
woman therefore remember that she who produces 
abortion is equally guilty in the eyes of science and 
of Heaven, whether the act be committed before or 
after the period of quickening. 

How is quickening produced ? Undoubtedly by 
the movements of the child. So soon as its nervous 
and muscular systems become sufficiently developed 
to enable it to move its limbs, the mother, if the 
movements be sufficiently active, is rendered sen- 
sible of her situation. But the muscular contractions 
may not be strong enough to impart any sensation 
to the mother. In many cases in which they are 
too feeble to be noticed by herself, the skilled ac- 
coucheur is capable of recognizing them. And the 
movements of the foetus may be excited in various 
ways known to physicians. 

Time of quickening. — This symptom usually 
occurs about the middle of pregnancy, near the 
eighteenth week. Some women feel the move- 
ments of the foetus as early as the third month of 
pregnancy, others not till the sixth month. Cases 
occur in which no movement whatever is felt until 
the eighth or ninth month, or even not at all. It 
has been suggested that a foetus which does not 
indicate its presence in this way is a kind of ' Lazy 
Lawrence,' too indolent to move. Certainly, many 
of both sexes exhibit after birth such indomitable 
love of repose, that it can readily be supposed they 
were equally passive in foetal life. 

The non-occurrence of this sign may, however, 



172 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

be due to the debility of the young child, or to a 
want of sensibility in the walls of the womb itself. 

A woman may be deceived, and suppose she has 
quickened, when her sensations are to be traced to 
flatulence of the bowels, or perhaps a dropsical effu- 
sion. Many ludicrous instances of self-deception 
are on record. The historian Hume states that 
Queen Mary, in her extreme desire to have issue, 
so confidently asserted that she felt the movements 
of the child, that public proclamation was made of 
the interesting event. Despatches were sent to 
foreign courts ; national rejoicings were had ; the 
sex of the child was settled, for everybody was cer- 
tain it was going to be a male ; and Bonner, Bishop 
of London, made public prayers, saying that Heaven 
would pledge to make him beautiful, vigorous, and 
witty. But all those high hopes and eager expec- 
tations were destined never to be realized. The 
future disclosed that the supposed quickening was 
merely a consequence of disordered health, and 
commencing dropsy. 

Some women possess the power of imitating the 
movements of a foetus, by voluntary contraction of 
the abdominal muscles. A well-known colored 
woman of Charleston, 'Aunt Betty,' had a great 
reputation as having ' been pregnant for fifteen 
years.' She made a good deal of money, by ex- 
hibiting to physicians and medical students who 
were curious, the pretended movements of her un- 
born child. She was repeatedly presented to the 
medical classes in the city. No pregnancy existed, 
as was revealed by a post-mortem examination. 
She imposed upon the credulous by the habit she 



SIGNS OF PREGNANCY. 1 73 

had acquired of jerking her muscles at pleasure, 
and thus closely simulating the movements of an 
embryo. 

5. Changes in the abdomen. — In the first two 
months of pregnancy the abdomen is less prominent 
than usual : it recedes, and presents a flat appear- 
ance. The navel is also drawn in and depressed. 
About the third month a swelling frequently shows 
itself in the lower part of the abdomen, and then 
diminishes, thus leading the wife to suppose that 
she was mistaken in her condition, for she finds 
herself at the fourth month smaller than at the 
third. After this, however, there is a gradual in- 
crease in the size and hardness of the abdomen. 
What is of more value, is the peculiar form of the 
swelling. It is pear-shaped, and is thus distin- 
guished from the swelling of dropsy and other 
affections. The navel begins to come forward, and 
finally protrudes. The pouting appearance it then 
presents is very characteristic. 

In this connection it may be remarked that, 
towards the change of life, childless married women 
often think they perceive that ' hope deferred ' is 
about to be gratified. An enlargement of the 
abdomen takes place at this time, from a deposit 
of fatty matter. The nervous perturbations and 
the cessation of the menses, which are natural to 
this period, are looked upon as confirmations 
of the opinion that pregnancy exists. But 
the day of generation with them has passed. 
These symptoms herald the approach of the 
winter of life, which brings with it death to the 
reproductive system. 



174 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

6. Changes in the skin. — The alterations occurring 
in the skin are worth observing. Those women 
who have a delicate complexion and are naturally 
pale take a high color, and vice versa. In some 
cases a considerable quantity of hair appears on 
those parts of the face occupied by the beard in 
men ; it disappears after labor, and returns on 
eveiy subsequent pregnancy. Oftentimes the skin 
becomes loose and wrinkled, giving a haggard, 
aged air to the face, and spoiling good looks. 
Women who ordinarily perspire freely, have now a 
dry, rough skin ; whereas those whose skin is not 
naturally moist, have copious perspiration, which 
may be of a peculiarly strong odor. Copper- 
colored or yellow blotches sometimes appear upon 
the skin, mole spots become darker and larger, 
and a dark ring developes itself beneath the eyes. 
The whole appearance is thus in many cases 
altered. On the other hand, obstinate, long-exist- 
ing skin affections sometimes take their departure 
during pregnancy, perhaps never to return. These 
alterations do not occur in all women, nor in all 
pregnancies of the same woman. 

7. We may now group together a number of less 
important and less constant signs, such as depraved 
appetite, longings fur unnatural food, excessive forma- 
tion of saliva in the mouth, heartburn, loss of appetite 
in the first two or three months, succeeded by a 
voracious desire for food, which sometimes compels 
the woman to rise at night in order to eat, toothache, 
sleepiness, diarrhoea, palpitation of the heart, pain in 
the right side, etc. These, when they occur singly, 
are of little value as evidence. 



SIGNS OF PREGNANCY. If$ 

Among these, that of depraved appetite is by far 
the most important, and may be regarded as quite 
significant. A married woman in her ordinary 
health, suddenly feeling this morbid taste for chalk, 
charcoal, slate pencil, and other unusual articles of 
food, may look upon it as a strong presumptive evi- 
dence of impregnation. 

When any or all of this group of symptoms ac- 
company the ceasing to be ' regular,' the morning 
sickness, the changes in the breasts and the other 
signs which have been enumerated, the wife may be 
quite sure that she is pregnant. 

8. Changes in the mind. — The most wonderful of 
all the changes which attend pregnancy are those 
in the nervous system. The woman is rendered 
more susceptible, more impressible. Her character 
is transformed. She is no longer pleasant, confiding, 
gentle, and gay. She becomes hasty, passionate, 
jealous, and bitter. But in those who are naturally 
fretful and bad-tempered a change for the better is 
sometimes observed, so that the members of the 
household learn from experience to hail with delight 
the mother's pregnancy as a period when clouds 
and storms give place to sunshine and quietness. 
In some rare cases, also, pregnancy confers increased 
force and elevation to the ideas, and augmented 
power to the intellect. 

As this book is written for women only, we do 
not mention any of the signs or symptoms of preg- 
nancy which medical men alone can recognize. We 
will merely state that there are many other signs 
besides these referred to, of great value to the 

doctor. One, the sound of the heart of the child, 
15* 



176 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

which the practised ear can detect at about the 
fifth month, is positive and conclusive. 

MISCARRIAGE. 

Miscarriage is a fruitful source of disease, and 
often of danger, to wives. It also causes a frightful 
waste of human life. Unborn thousands annually 
die in this manner. 

Frequency. — Miscarriage is by no means a rare 
occurrence. Statistics show that thirty-seven out 
of one hundred mothers miscarry before they attain 
the age of thirty years. But this accident is much 
more apt to occur during the latter than during the 
first half of the child-bearing period ; and therefore 
it is estimated that ninety out of one hundred of all 
women who continue in matrimony until the change 
of life, miscarry. 

Influence of age of mother. — A woman who 
marries at forty is very much disposed to miscarry; 
whereas, had she married at thirty, she might have 
borne children when older than forty. As a mother 
approaches the end of her child-bearing period, it is 
likely that she will terminate her career of fertility 
with a premature birth. The last pregnancies are 
not only most commonly unsuccessful, but there is 
also reason to believe that the occurrence of idiocy 
in a child may be associated with the circumstance 
of its being the last-born of its mother. It has been 
asserted, in this connection, that men of genius are 
frequently the first-born. First pregnancies are also 
fraught with the danger of miscarriage, which occurs 
more often in them than in others, excepting the 
latest. A woman is particularly apt to miscarry 



MISCARRIAGE. iff 

with her first child, if she be either exceedingly 
nervous or full-blooded. 

Influence of period of pregnancy. — Miscarriage is 
most frequent in the earlier months of pregnancy — 
from the first to the third. It is also very prone to 
happen about the sixth month. Habit makes itself 
felt here ; for women who have many times experi- 
enced this sad accident, encounter it nearly always 
at the same epoch of their pregnancy. 

How early can the child live ? — The infant is in- 
capable, as a rule, of an independent existence, if 
brought into the world before the end of the sixth 
month. The law of France regards a child born 
one hundred and eighty days after wedlock as not 
only capable of living, but as legitimate and worthy 
of all legal and civil rights. There are many cases 
mentioned, by the older medical writers, of children 
born previous to this period living. One of the 
most curious is that recorded by Van Swieten. The 
boy Fortunio Liceti was brought into the world 
before the sixth month, in consequence of a fright 
his mother had at sea. When born, it is said, he 
was the size of a hand, and his father placed him 
in an oven, for the purpose, probably, it has been 
suggested, of making him rise. Although born 
prematurely, he died late, for we are told that he 
attained his seventy-ninth year. Professor Gun- 
ning S. Bedford of New York records the case of a 
woman in her fourth confinement, who, before she 
had completed her sixth month, was delivered of a 
female infant weighing two pounds nine ounces. 
The surface of the body was of a scarlet hue. It 
breathed, and in a short time after birth cried 

M 



1/8 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

freely. After being wrapped in soft cotton, well 
lubricated with warm sweet-oil, it was fed with the 
mothers milk, by having a few drops at a time put 
into its mouth. At first it had great difficulty in 
swallowing, but gradually it succeeded in taking 
sufficient nourishment, and is now a vigorous, 
healthy young woman. 

Dangers to mother. — Wives are too much in the 
habit of making light of miscarriages. They are 
much more frequently followed by disease of the 
womb than are confinements at full terms. There 
is a greater amount of injury done to the parts 
than in natural labor. While after confinement 
ample time is afforded by a long period of repose 
for the bruised and lacerated parts to heal, after a 
miscarriage no such rest is obtained. Menstruation 
soon returns ; conception may quickly follow. Un- 
happily, there is no custom requiring husband and 
wife to sleep apart for a month after a miscarriage, 
as there is after a confinement. Hence, especially 
if there be any pre-existing uterine disease, or a 
predisposition thereto, miscarriage is a serious 
thing. 

Causes. — The irritation of hemorrhoids or straining 
at stool will sometimes provoke an early expulsion 
of a child. Excessive intercourse by the newly 
married is a very frequent cause. Bathing in the 
ocean has been known to produce it. Nursing is 
exceedingly apt to do so. It has been shown by a 
distinguished medical writer, that, in a given num- 
ber of instances, miscarriage occurred in seventeen 
per cent, of cases in which the woman conceived 
while nursing, and in only ten per cent, where con- 



HOW TO PREVENT MISCARRIAGE. 1 79 

ception occurred at some other time. A wife, 
therefore, who suspects herself to be pregnant, 
should wean her child. The extraction of a tooth, 
over-exertion and over-excitement, a fall, a blow, 
any violent emotion, such as anger, sudden and 
excessive joy, or fright, running, dancing, horse- 
back exercise, or riding in a badly-built carriage 
over a rough road, great fatigue, lifting heavy 
weights, the abuse of purgative medicines, disease 
or displacement of the womb, small-pox, or a 
general condition of ill-health, are all fruitful and 
well-known exciting causes of this unfortunate mis- 
hap, in addition to those which have been before 
mentioned. 

Preventioji. — The eminent practitioner, Dr. Tilt, 
says, ' The way to prevent miscarriage is to lead a 
quiet life, particularly during those days of each 
successive month when, under other circumstances, 
the woman would menstruate ; and to abstain 
during those days not only from long walks and 
parties, but also from sexual intercourse.' 

It is epecially desirable to avoid a miscarriage 
in the first pregnancy, for fear that the habit of 
miscarrying shall then be set up, which it will be 
very difficult to eradicate. Therefore newly-married 
women should carefully avoid all causes which are 
known to induce the premature expulsion of the 
child. If it should take place in spite of all pre- 
cautions, extraordinary care should be exercised in 
the subsequent pregnancy, to prevent its recurrence. 
Professor Bedford of New York has said he has 
found that an excellent expedient in such cases is, 
as soon as pregnancy is known to exist, ' to inter- 

M 2 



l80 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

diet sexual intercourse until after the fifth month ; 
for if the pregnancy pass beyond this period, the 
chances of miscarriage will be much diminished.' 

If the symptoms of miscarriage, which may be 
expressed in the two words pain and flooding, 
should make their appearance, the doctor ought at 
once to be sent for, the wife awaiting his arrival in 
a recumbent position. He may even then be able 
to avert the impending danger. At any rate, his 
services are as necessary, and often even more so, 
as in a labor at full term. 

mother's marks. 

It is a popular belief that the imagination of the 
mother affects the child in the womb. It is as- 
serted that infants are often born with various 
marks and deformities corresponding in character 
with objects which had made a vivid impression on 
the maternal mind during pregnancy. This is 
a subject of great practical interest. We shall 
therefore give it the careful attention which.it de- 
serves. 

We have already discussed the operation of the 
laws of inheritance. It was then stated that the 
whole story of maternal influence had not been told 
— that the mother could communicate qualities she . 
never possessed. The potency of imagination at 
the time of conception over the child has been 
mentioned. It is now our design to consider its 
effects, during the period of pregnancy, upon the 
physical structure and the mental attributes of the 
offspring. We shall have occasion hereafter, in 
speaking of nursing, to illustrate the manner in 



MOTHER'S MARKS. l8l 

which the child may be affected by maternal im- 
pressions acting through the mother's milk. What 
can be more wonderful than this intimate union 
between the mother and her child ? It is only 
equalled by that mysterious influence of the hus- 
band over the wife, by which he so impresses her 
system that she often comes in time to resemble 
him both in mental and physical characteristics, 
and even transmits his peculiarities to her children 
by a second marriage. Father, mother, and child 
are one. 

We wish here to premise that our remarks will 
be based upon the conclusions of skilled and 
scientific observers only, whose position and ex- 
perience no medical man will question. All the 
instances to be related are given upon unimpeach- 
able authority. They are not the narrations of 
ignorant, credulous people ; they are all fully 
vouched for. We record here, as elsewhere, only 
the sober utterances of science. The great import- 
ance and utility of an acquaintance with them will 
be patent to every intelligent man and woman. 

The effect of the mind upon the body is well 
known. Strong, long-continued mental emotion 
may induce or cure disease. Heart disease may be 
produced by a morbid direction of the thoughts to 
that organ. Warts disappear under the operation 
of a strong belief in the efficacy of some nonsensical 
application. In olden time, scrofula, or the ' king's 
evil,' was cured by the touch of the king. The 
mind of the patient, of course, accomplished the 
cure. Under the influence of profound mental 
emotion, the hair of the beautiful Marie Antoinette 



1 82 THE WIFE DURING PREGXAXCY. 

became white in a short time. During the solitary 
voyage of Madame Condamine down the wild and 
lonely Amazon, a similar change took place. Many 
other instances might be adduced ; but those given 
are sufficient to show that strong and persistent 
mental impressions will exert a mysterious trans- 
forming power over the bod}'. These facts will 
pave the way to the consideration of corresponding 
effects, through the mother's mind, upon the deve- 
lopment of the unborn child, forming a part of 
herself in utero. 

Influence of mind of mother on form and color of 
infant, — There are numerous facts on record which 
prove that habitual, long-continued mental condi- 
tions of the mother at an early period of pregnancy, 
induce deformity or other abnormal development 
of the infant. 

Profe-sor William A. Hammond of New York 
relates the following striking case, which occurred 
in his own experience, and which scarcely admits 
of a doubt as to the influence of the maternal mind 
over the physical structure of the foetus. 

A lady in the third month of her pregnancy was 
very much horrified by her husband being brought 
home one evening with a severe wound of the face, 
from which the blood was streaming. The shock 
to her was so great that she fainted, and subse- 
quently had a hysterical attack, during which she 
was under Dr. Hammond's care. Soon after her 
recover}- she told him that she was afraid her child 
would be affected in some way, and that even then 
she could not get rid of the impression the sight of 
her husband's bloody face had made upon her. In 



MOTHER'S MARKS. 1 83 

due time the child, a girl, was born. She had 
a dark red mark upon the face, corresponding in 
situation and extent with that which had been 
upon her father's face. She also proved to be 
idiotic. 

Professor Dalton of New York states that the 
wife of the janitor of the College of Physicians 
and Surgeons of that city, during her pregnancy, 
dreamed that she saw a man who had lost a part 
of the ear. The dream made a great impression 
upon her mind, and she mentioned it to her hus- 
band. When her child was born, a portion of one 
ear was deficient, and the organ was exactly like 
the defective ear she had seen in her dream. 
When Professor Dalton was lecturing upon the 
development of the foetus as affected by the mind 
of the mother, the janitor called his attention to 
the foregoing instance. The ear looks exactly 
as if a portion had been cut off with a sharp 
knife. 

Professor J. Lewis Smith of Bellevue Hospital 
Medical College, New York, has met with the fol- 
lowing cases : — An Irishwoman, of strong emotions 
and superstitions, was passing along a street, in 
the first months of her pregnancy, when she was 
accosted by a beggar, who raised her hand, desti- 
tute of thumb and fingers, and in 'God's name' 
asked for alms. The woman passed on, but, re- 
flecting in whose name money was asked, felt that 
she had committed a great sin in refusing assistance. 
She returned to the place where she had met the 
beggar, and on different days, but never afterwards 

saw her. Harassed by the thought of her imaginary 
16 



1 84 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

sin, so that for weeks, according to her statement, 
she was distressed by it, she approached her con- 
finement. A female infant was born, otherwise 
perfect, but lacking the fingers and thumb of one 
hand. The deformed limb was on the same side, 
and it seemed to the mother to. resemble precisely 
that of the beggar. In another case which Pro- 
fessor Smith met, a very similar malformation was 
attributed by the mother of the child to an accident 
occurring, during the time of her pregnancy, to a 
near relative, which necessitated amputation. He 
examined both of these children with defective 
limbs, and has no doubt of the truthfulness of the 
parents. In May, 1868, he removed a supernu- 
merary thumb from an infant, whose mother, a 
baker's wife, gave the following history : — No one 
of the family, and no ancestor, to her knowledge, 
presented this deformity. In the early months of 
her pregnancy she sold bread from the counter, 
and nearly every day a child with a double thumb 
came in for a penny roll, presenting the penny 
between the thumb and the finger. After the third 
month she left the bakery, but the malformation 
was so impressed upon her mind, that she was not 
surprised to see it reproduced in her infant. 

In all these cases the impression was produced 
in the early months of pregnancy ; but many have 
been recorded in which malformations in the infant 
appeared distinctly traceable to strong mental emo- 
tions of the mother only a few months previous to 
confinement, these impressions having been persis- 
tent during the remaining period of the pregnancy, 
and giving rise to a full expectation on the part of 



MOTHER'S MARKS. 1 85 

the mother that the child would be affected in the 
particular manner which actually occurred. Pro- 
fessor Carpenter, the distinguished physiologist, is 
personally cognisant of a very striking case of the 
kind which occurred in the family of a near connec- 
tion of his own. 

All the above instances have been those of the 
effects of persistent mental emotion. But it is also 
true that violent and sudden emotion in the mother 
leaves sometimes its impress upon the unborn infant, 
although it may be quickly forgotten. 

It is related on good authority that a lady, who 
during her pregnancy was struck with the un- 
pleasant view of leeches applied to a relatives 
foot, gave birth to a child with the mark of a 
leech coiled up in the act of suction on the in- 
tended spot. 

Dr. Delacoux of Paris says that, in the month of 
January 1825, he was called to attend a woman in 
the village of Batignoles, near Paris, who the even- 
ing before had been delivered of a six months' 
fcetus, horribly deformed. The upper lip was in a 
confused mass with the jaw and the gums, and the 
right leg was amputated at the middle, the stump 
having the form of a cone. The mother of this 
being, who was a cook, one morning, about the 
third month of her pregnancy, on entering the house 
where she was employed, was seized with horror at 
the sight of a porter with a hare-lip and an ampu- 
tated leg. 

At a meeting of the Society of Physicians at 
Berlin, in August 1868, Herr Dupre stated that a 
woman saw, in the first weeks of her third preg- 



1 86 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

nancy, a boy with a hare-lip ; and not only was the 
child she then carried born with a frightful hare-lip, 
but also three children subsequently. Another one, 
a woman in the fifth week of pregnancy, saw a sheep 
wounded, and with its bowels protruding. She was 
greatly shocked, and did not recover her composure 
for several days. She was delivered at term of a 
child, in other respects well developed, but lacking 
the walls of the abdomen. 

Many remarkable instances have been collected 
of the power of imagination over the unborn off- 
spring. 

Ambrose Pare, the illustrious French surgeon of 
the sixteenth century, in one of his treatises devotes 
a chapter to the subject of ' monsters which take 
their cause and shape from imagination,' and was 
evidently a strong believer in this influence. 

A black child is generally believed to have been 
born to Marie Therese, the wife of Louis XIV., in 
consequence of a little negro page in her service 
having started from a hiding-place and stumbled 
over her dress early in her pregnancy. This child 
was educated at the convent of Moret, near Fon- 
tainebleau, where she took the veil, and where, till 
the shock of the Revolution, her portrait was shown. 

Examples are given by authors of the force of 
desires in causing deformities in infants, and the 
formation upon them of fruits, such as apples, pears, 
grapes, and others, which the mother may have 
longed for. 

The following is related upon excellent medical 
authority : — A woman gave birth to a child with a 
large cluster of globular tumours growing from the 



MOTHER'S MARKS. 1 87 

tongue, and preventing the closure of the mouth, in 
color, shape, and size exactly resembling our 
common grapes ; and with a red excrescence from 
the chest, as exactly resembling in figure and ap- 
pearance a turkey's wattles. On being questioned 
before the child was shown to her, she answered, 
that while pregnant she had seen some grapes, 
longed intensely for them, and constantly thought 
of them ; and that she was also once attacked and 
much alarmed by a turkey-cock. 

Dr. Demangeon of Paris quotes, in his work on 
the Imagination, the Journal de Verdun, as men- 
tioning the case of a child, born at Blois, in the 
eyes of which the face of a watch was distinctly 
seen. The image was situated around the pupil, 
and the figures representing the hours were plainly 
perceived. The mother had experienced a strong 
desire to see a watch while she was pregnant with 
this child. 

Professor Dalton says, in his Human Physiology \ 
that ' there is now little room for doubt that various 
deformities and deficiencies of the foetus, conform- 
ably to the popular belief, do really originate in 
certain cases from nervous impressions, such as 
disgust, fear, or anger, experienced by the mother.' 
We will now consider the 

Influence of the mind of the mother on the mind of 

the infant ; which subject we have not yet touched 

upon, having confined ourselves to the influence of 

the maternal mind over the form and color of the 

unborn child. It will not be necessary to illustrate 

at length this branch of our topic. Instances are 

sufficiently common and well known. Dr. Sequin 
16* 



188 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

of New York, in his work on Idiocy, gives several 
cases in which there was reason to believe that 
fright, anxiety, or other emotions in the mother, 
had produced idiocy in the offspring. As he re- 
marks, 'Impressions will sometimes reach the foetus 
in its recess, cut off its legs or arms, or inflict large 
flesh wounds before birth, — inexplicable as well as 
indisputable facts, from which we surmise that 
idiocy holds unknown though certain relations to 
maternal impressions.' 

We have given many strong cases and most ex- 
cellent authority for the doctrine that the purely 
mental influence of the mother may produce bodily 
and mental changes in the unborn infant. But the 
child is also affected by physical impressions made 
upon the mother. 

Dr. Russegger reports that a woman, who had 
already borne four healthy children, was, in the 
seventh month of her pregnancy, bitten in the 
right calf by a dog. The author saw the wound 
made by the animal's teeth, which wound consisted 
of three small triangular depressions, by two of 
which the skin was only slightly ruffled ; a slight 
appearance of blood was perceptible in the third. 
The woman was at the moment of the accident 
somewhat alarmed, but neither then nor afterwards 
had any fear that her foetus would be affected by 
the occurrence. Ten weeks after she was bitten, 
the woman bore a healthy child, which, however, to 
the surprise of every person, had three marks cor- 
responding in size and appearance to those caused 
by the dog's teeth in the mother's leg, and con- 
sisting, like those, of one large and two smaller 



MOTHER'S MARKS. 1 89 

impressions. The two latter, which were pale, dis- 
appeared in five weeks ; the larger one had also 
become less, and was not so deep colored as it was 
at birth. At the time of writing, the child was four 
months old. 

Dr. S. P. Crawford of Greenville, Tennessee, re- 
ports, in a recent number of the Nashville Journal 
of Medicine, the following sad case : — A lady, in 
the last stage of pregnancy, was burned by the 
explosion of a kerosene-oil can. She lived twelve 
hours after the accident. The face, legs, arms, and 
abdomen were badly burned. The movements of 
the child were felt three or four hours after the 
accident. A short time before the death of the 
mother she gave birth to the child at full maturity, 
but still-born. . It bore the mark of the fire corres- 
ponding to that of the mother. Its legs, arms, and 
abdomen were completely blistered, having all the 
appearance of a recent burn. 

These instances of a decided influence exerted 
upon the body and mind of the child in the womb, 
by physical and mental impressions made upon the 
mother, might be doubled or trebled. They are as 
numerous as they are wonderful. Physiologists of 
the present day do not hesitate to admit the exist- 
ence of the influence we have been discussing-. 
Reason also comes to the support of facts, to 
demonstrate and establish its reality. For, if a 
sudden and powerful emotion of the mind can so 
disturb the stomach and heart as to cause vomiting 1 
and fainting, is it not probable that it can affect 
the womb and the impressible being within it ? 
Pregnancy is a function of the woman as much as 



190 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

digestion or pulsation of the heart ; and if the latter 
are controlled by moral and mental impressions, 
why should not the former be also ? 

In what manner does this influence of the maternal 
mind act ? — Through the blood of the mother. Only 
a very delicate membrane separates the vital fluid 
of the mother from that of the infant in her womb. 
There is a constant interchange of the blood in its 
body with that in hers through this exceedingly 
thin membrane ; and thus all nervous impressions 
which have produced an alteration of either a 
temporary or permanent character in the circu- 
lating fluid of the mother, are communicated to 
the child. Since the mother, as has been shown, 
can transmit through her blood certain character- 
istics of mind and body not her own, — for instance, 
a disease peculiar to a male from her father to her 
son, or the physical and mental traits of her first 
husband to the children by her second, — it does 
not seem at all strange that she should through 
this same medium, her blood, impart other pecu- 
liarities which have made a strong impression upon 
her mind. Anatomy and physiology therefore 
fully explain and account for this seemingly mys- 
terious influence. 

The view here stated, and indorsed by modern 
science, is one which ought to have great weight 
with the mother, her relatives and friends. The 
practical conclusion which it suggests is, that as 
during pregnancy there is unusual susceptibility to 
mental impressions, and as these impressions may 
operate on the fragile structure of the unborn 
being, this tendency should be well considered and 



EDUCATION IN THE WOMB. 191 

constantly remembered, not only by the woman 
herself, but by all those who associate or are thrown 
in contact with her. Upon the care displayed in 
the management of the corporeal and mental 
health of the mother during the whole period of 
pregnancy, the ultimate constitution of the off- 
spring greatly depends. All the surroundings and 
employments of the pregnant woman should be 
such as conduce to cheerfulness and equanimity. 
Above all, she should avoid the presence of dis- 
agreeable and unsightly objects. Vivid and un- 
pleasant impressions should be removed as soon 
as possible by quiet diversion of the mind. All 
causes of excitement should be carefully guarded 
against. 

In leaving the subject of maternal impressions, 
we will call attention to the manifest difference 
in extent and degree between the influence of the 
father and that of the mother over the offspring. 
That of the father ceases with impregnation. That 
of the mother continues during the whole term of 
pregnancy, and, as we shall shortly see, even during 
that of nursing. 

EDUCATION OF THE CHILD IN THE WOMB. 

The outlines drawn by the artist Flaxman are 
esteemed the most perfect and graceful in exist- 
ence. From earliest childhood he manifested a 
delight in drawing. His mother, a woman of re- 
fined and artistic tastes, used to relate that for 
months previous to his birth she spent hours daily 
studying engravings, and fixing in her memory the 
most beautiful proportions of the human figure as 



192 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

portrayed by masters. She was convinced that the 
genius of her son was the fruit of her own self- 
culture. What a charming idea is this ! What an 
incentive to those about to become mothers, to 
cultivate refinement, high thoughts, pure emotions, 
elevated sentiments ! Thus they endow their 
children with what no after education can give 
them. 

The plastic brain of the foetus is prompt to re- 
ceive all impressions. It retains them, and they 
become the characteristics of the child and the 
man. Low spirits, violent passions, irritability, 
frivolity, in the pregnant woman, leave indelible 
marks on the unborn child. So do their contraries ; 
and thus it becomes of the utmost moment that 
during this period all that is cheerful, inspiring, and 
elevating should surround the woman. Such emo- 
tions educate the child : they form its disposition, 
they shape its faculties, they create its mental and 
intellectual traits. Of all education, this is the 
most momentous. 

CAN A WOMAN BECOME AGAIN PREGNANT 
DURING PREGNANCY. 

Can a woman during pregnancy conceive, and 
add a second and younger child to that already in 
the womb ? 

It is not uncommon in the canine race for a 
mother to give birth at the same time to dogs of 
different species, showing conclusively the possi- 
bility, in these animals, of one conception closely 
following another. So a mare has been known to 
produce within a quarter of an hour, first a horse, 



DOUBLE PREGNANCIES. 193 

and then a mule. And in the human race cases 
are on record in which women have had twins, of 
which the one was white and the other colored, in 
consequence of intercourse on the same day with 
men of those two races. Dr. Henry relates that in 
Brazil a Creole woman, a native, brought into the 
world at one birth three children of three different 
colors, — white, brown, and black, — each child ex- 
hibiting the features peculiar to the respective 
races. 

In all such instances the two conceptions fol- 
lowed each other very rapidly, the offspring arriv- 
ing at maturity together, and being born at the 
same accouchement. But more curious and 
wonderful examples of second and concurrent 
pregnancies have been published than these, — as, 
for instance, those in which a child bearing all the 
attributes of a foetus at full term is born two, three, 
four, and even five, months after the first, which 
appeared also to have been born at full term. 
Marie Anne Bigaud, aged thirty-seven, gave birth, 
April 30, 1748, to a living boy at full term, and on 
the ensuing September 16, to a living girl, which 
was recognised, by the size and well-developed 
condition of its body and limbs, to have been also 
carried until full term. This fact was observed by 
Professor Eisenman, and by Leriche, surgeon-major 
of the military hospital of Strasbourg. It will be 
noticed that there was an interval of four and a half 
months between the two accouchements. The first 
child lived two and a half months, and the second a 
year. In this instance there was not a double 
womb, as might perhaps be supposed, for after the 



194 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

mother's death an examination proved that the 
uterus was single. 

Another case of this kind is the following : — - 
Benoite Franquet of Lyons brought into the world 
a girl on January 20, 1780, and five months and six 
days afterwards a second girl, also apparently at 
term, and well nourished. Two years later these 
two children were presented, with their certificates 
of baptism, to two notaries of Lyons, MM. Caillot 
and Desurgey, in order that the fact might be 
placed on record and vouched for, because of its 
value in legal medicine. 

The number of the entirely authenticated cases 
now known of the birth of fully developed children 
within from two to five months of each other, can 
leave no doubt as to the possibility of such an oc- 
currence. The only question which remains is in 
regard to the periods of conception. Are the two 
children in such cases twins, conceived at the same 
time, but the growth of the last-born so retarded 
that it did not arrive at maturity until a number of 
months after its fellow ? or, Has a second concep- 
tion taken place at an interval of several months 
after the first ? If this latter view be true, then, in 
the instance of Marie Anne Bigaud, above related, 
the* second child must have been conceived after the 
first had quickened. Then, also, two children of 
different ages, the offspring of different fathers, may 
exist in the womb at the same time. The weight 
of scientific observation and authority has now 
established the fact that, in very rare instances, a 
second conception may take place during preg- 
nancy. It must not be understood as necessarily 



CASES OF DOUBLE CHILDREN. 1 95 

following from this statement, that when two 
children are born at the same time, — one fully 
developed, and the other small and apparently 
prematurely born, — the two were conceived at 
different times. The smaller may have been 
blighted and its growth hindered by the same 
causes which bring about such effects in cases of 
single births of incompletely developed children. 
A similar supposition may account for the birth of 
a second child within a month or two after the first, 
for the first may have been prematurely born, and 
the second carried to full term. But no such sup- 
position can explain the cases referred to, and 
others which might be mentioned, in which the 
interval has been five or six months, each child 
presenting every indication of perfect maturity. 
The only explanation possible in such instances, 
which, as has been said, are well authenticated, 
although few in number, is, that a second preg- 
nancy has occurred during the first. 

The above facts would seem sufficiently wonder- 
ful. There are others, however, of the same nature 
still more so. In some instances, the product of 
the second conception, instead of developing inde- 
pendently of the first, has become attached to it, 
and the phenomenon has been presented of the 
growth of a child within a child — a foetus within a 
foetus. Such a singular occurrence has been lately 
recorded in a German journal. A correspondent 
of the Dantzic Gazette states that on Sunday, 
February 1, 1869, at Schliewen, near Dirschau, 'a 
young and blooming shepherd's wife was delivered 
of a girl, otherwise sound, but having on the lower 
17 N 2 



I96 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

part of her back, between the hips, a swelling as 
big as two good-sized fists, through the walls of 
which a well-developed foetus may be felt. Its 
limbs indicate a growth of from five to six months, 
and its movements are very lively. The father 
called in the health commissioner, Dr. Preuss, from 
Dirschau, and begged him to remove the swelling 
together with the foetus. The doctor, however, 
after a careful examination, declared that there 
was a possibility in this extraordinary case of the 
child "within the swelling coming to fruition. Its 
existence and active motions were palpable to all 
present. No physician could be justified in de- 
stroying this marvellous being. It ought rather to 
be protected and cherished. The new-born girl, 
notwithstanding her strange burden, is of unusual 
strength and beauty, and takes the breast very 
cheerfully.' 

We find something further in regard to this sin- 
gular birth in the Weser Zeitung of February 20, 
1869. It quotes from the Dantzic Gazette some 
remarks by the health commissioner, Dr. Preuss of 
Dirschau, in which the doctor declares the facts 
contained in the report given above to be correct. 
He was summoned on the 1st of February to the 
child, and saw the vigorous movements, and felt 
the members of a foetus within the swelling, as de- 
scribed. It was evidently a double creation. The 
case thus far, though rare, is not unique. ' But 
what is novel, and hitherto perfectly unnoticed in 
medical literature, is the fact that not only the 
girl, which has been carried its full term, is alive 
to-day, but the foetus within the swelling has also, 



CONCURRENT PREGNANCIES. 197 

in the eleven days after birth, further developed, 
and palpably increased in size. The swelling is 
now four and a half inches long, three and a half 
inches wide, and high and pear-shaped ; the head 
lies underneath on the left, the body towards the 
right.' 

Further particulars and the latest intelligence we 
have concerning the progress of this case are to 
the effect that the child w T as brought by special re- 
quest before the Natural History Society of Dant- 
zic, and thence the mother went to Berlin for 
medical advice. 

MORAL ASPECTS OF THIS QUESTION. 

Upon proper judgment and discrimination in the 
application of the facts we have just been dwelling 
upon, may depend a wife's honor, and the hap- 
piness of the dearest social relations. We will 
suppose an example. A husband, immediately 
after the impregnation of his wife, is obliged to 
quit her, and remains absent a year. In the mean- 
while she gives birth to two children, at an interval 
of a number of weeks. The question will then 
come up, Whether, under such circumstances, it is 
possible for her to do so consistently with conjugal 
purity. 

It will be recollected that, in speaking of twins, 
we remarked that it was not very uncommon for 
an interval of days or weeks to elapse between the 
births, and it has just been stated that impregna- 
tion during pregnancy is extremely rare. The 
presumption, therefore, in the case supposed, is as 
very many to one that the two births were the 



I98 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

result of a twin pregnancy. In the absence of any 
other evidence against the wife's chastity, it should 
not even be called in question. This decision re- 
ceives the support of the maxim in law that a 
reasonable doubt is the property of the accused, 
and of the Christian principle that it is better that 
ninety-nine guilty should escape than that one 
innocent should be condemned. Hence the teach- 
ings of science and of human and divine law all 
coincide to protect the sacred rights and the pre- 
cious interests at stake against an unjust suspicion, 
which even the doctrine of chances would render 
untenable. 

CAN A CHILD CRY IN THE WOMB? 

There are some cases, recorded on undoubted 
authority, in which the child has been heard to cry 
while in the womb. These are very exceptional. 
Under ordinary circumstances, it is impossible for 
the child either to breathe or cry, because of the 
absence of air. It is only when the bag of mem- 
branes has been torn, and the mouth of the child 
is applied at or near the neck of the uterus, that 
this can take place. The infant is not unfrequently 
heard to cry just before birth, after labor has 
commenced, but before the extrusion of the head 
from the womb, in consequence of the penetration 
of air into the uterine cavity. 

IS IT A SON OR DAUGHTER? 

It is a common saying among nurses, that there 
is a difference in the size and form of the pregnant 
woman, according to the sex she carries. This 



HOW TO PREDICT A BOY OR GIRL. 1 99 

may well be doubted. Neither is it true that one 
sex is more active in its ' movements ' than the 
other. It is quite possible, however, for a wife to 
know the sex of the foetus, if she can tell about 
what time in her month conception took place. If 
it occurred directly after a monthly sickness, the 
child is a girl ; if directly before, it is a boy. 
When a woman is ' out ' in her reckoning, and 
goes beyond the period of her expected confine- 
ment, it will ordinarily turn out to be a boy. The 
skilful doctor can, in the later months of pregnancy, 
settle the question of sex in some cases. The 
beats of the foetal heart are more frequent in 
females than in males. The average frequency of 
pulsations of twenty-eight female foetuses has been 
found to be one hundred and forty-four in the 
minute, the lowest figure being one hundred and 
thirty-eight ; of twenty-two male foetuses, one hun- 
dred and twenty, the lowest figure being one 
hundred and twelve. Therefore, when the pulsa- 
tions of the heart of the child in the womb are 
counted, — as can easily be done by a practised 
medical ear during the last months of pregnancy, 
— and are found to be over one hundred and thirty 
in a minute, it is a daughter ; if under one hundred 
and thirty, a son. In this manner, the sex of an 
unborn child can be predicted with tolerable accu- 
racy, excepting only when illness of the foetus has 
deranged the action of its heart. 

ARE THERE TWINS PRESENT ? 

Certain signs lead to the suspicion of twins, such 

as being unusually large, and the fact that the in- 
17* 



200 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

crease in size has been more than ordinarily rapid. 
Sometimes also the abdomen is divided into two 
distinct portions by a perpendicular fissure. In 
other cases the movements of a child can be felt on 
each side at the same time. And in twin preg- 
nancies the morning sickness is apt to be more 
distressing, and all the other discomforts incident 
to this condition increased. But these signs and 
symptoms, when present in any given case, are not 
conclusive, for they may be noticed when there is 
only one child. The doctor has one characteristic 
and infallible sign by which he can ascertain 
whether the woman be pregnant with twins. It is 
furnished to him again by the art of listening, — or 
auscultation, as it is technically called, — the same 
that, as we have already seen, may enable him to 
determine the sex of the child. When the beatings 
of two fcetal hearts are heard on opposite portions 
of the abdomen, the nature of the pregnancy is 
apparent. 

LENGTH OF PREGNANCY. 

What is the ordinary duration of pregnancy ? 
Almost every woman considers herself competent 
to make the answer — nine months. She may be 
surprised to learn, however, that such an answer is 
wanting in scientific precision. It is too indefinite, 
and is erroneous. There is a great difference be- 
tween the calendar and the lunar month. Each 
lunar month having twenty-eight days, the period 
of nine lunar months is two hundred and fifty-two 
days. Nine calendar months, including February, 
represent, on the contrary, two hundred and 



DURATION OF PREGNANCY. 201 

seventy-three days. Now the average duration of 
pregnancy is two hundred and eighty days, that is, 
forty weeks, or ten lunar months. 

While most extended observations have shown 
that, as a general rule, forty weeks, or two hundred 
and eighty days, is the true period of pregnancy, 
are we justified in the conclusion that this is its 
invariable duration ? This important question, 
upon the answer to which so often depend the honor 
of families, the rights of individuals, and sometimes 
the interests of nationalities, has been in all times 
the subject of careful research by physicians, philo- 
sophers, and legislators. On the one side, have 
been those who contend that the laws of nature are 
invariable, and that the term of pregnancy is fixed 
and immutable. On the other side, have been 
those who assert that the epoch of accouchement 
can be greatly advanced or retarded by various 
causes, some of which are known, and others not yet 
appreciated. Abundant and satisfactory testimony 
has proved that the prolongation of pregnancy beyond 
the ordinary period of two hundred and eighty days, 
or forty weeks, is possible. Nor is this contrary to 
what is observed in regard to other functions of the 
human body. There is no process depending upon 
the laws of life which is absolutely invariable either 
as to the period of its appearance or duration. It 
is known, as we have already pointed out, that 
puberty may be advanced or retarded ; the time at 
which the change of life occurs in women, as we 
"shall have occasion hereafter to show, is also sub- 
ject to variation ; and it is a matter of common 
observation with mothers, that the period of teeth- 



202 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

ing is sometimes strangely hurried or delayed. A 
certain degree of variability, therefore, being fre- 
quently observed, and entirely compatible with 
health, in the various other natural processes, why 
should that of pregnancy form an exception, and be 
invariably fixed in its duration ? And observation 
upon the lower animals affords most convincing 
evidence that nature is not controlled by any uni- 
form law in reference to the length of pregnancy. 
In the cow, the usual period of whose pregnancy is 
the same as in the human female, instances of calv- 
ing six weeks beyond the ordinary term are not at 
all uncommon. 

As an illustration of the great interest sometimes 
attaching to the inquiry under discussion, we may 
cite the celebrated Gardner Peerage Case, tried by 
the House of Lords in 1825. Allen Legge Gardner 
petitioned to have his name inscribed as a peer on 
the Parliament Roll. He was the son of Lord 
Gardner by his second wife. There was another 
claimant for the peerage, however, — Henry Fenton 
Iadis, — on the ground, as alleged, that he was the 
son of Lord Gardner by his first and subsequently 
divorced wife. Medical and moral evidence was 
adduced to establish that the latter was illegiti- 
mate. Lady Gardner, the mother of the alleged 
illegitimate child, parted from her husband on the 
30th of January, 1802, he going to the West Indies, 
and not again seeing his wife until the nth of July 
following. The child whose legitimacy was called 
in question, was born on the 8th of December of 
that year. The plain medical query therefore 
arose, Whether this child born either three hundred 



THE STORY OF LORD GARDNER. 203 

and eleven days after intercourse (from January 
30th to December 8th), or one hundred and fifty 
days (from July nth to December 8th), could be 
the son of Lord Gardner. As there was no pre- 
tence that there was a premature birth, the child hav- 
ing been well developed when born, the conception 
must have dated from January 30th. The medical 
question was therefore narrowed down to this : 
Was the alleged protracted pregnancy (three hun- 
dred and eleven days) consistent with experience ? 
Sixteen of the principal obstetric practitioners of 
Great Britain were examined on this point. Eleven 
concurred in the opinion that natural pregnancy 
might be protracted to a period which would cover 
the birth of the alleged illegitimate child. Because, 
however, of the moral evidence alone, which proved 
the adulterous intercourse of Lady Gardner with a 
Mr. Iadis, the House decided that the title should 
descend to the son of the second Lady Gardner. 

There is on record one fact, well observed, which 
establishes beyond cavil the possibility of the pro- 
traction of pregnancy beyond two hundred and 
eighty days, or forty weeks. The case is reported 
by the learned Dr. Desormeaux of Paris, and oc- 
curred under his own notice in the Hopital de 
Maternite of that city. A woman, the mother of 
three children, became insane. Her physician 
thought that a new pregnancy might re-establish 
her intellectual faculties. Her husband consented 
to enter on the register of the hospital each visit 
he was allowed to make her, which took place only 
every three months. So soon as evidence of preg- 
nancy showed itself, the visits were discontinued. 



204 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

The woman was confined two hundred and ninety 
days after conception. 

The late distinguished Professor Charles D. 
Meigs of Philadelphia published a case, which he 
deems entirely trustworthy, of the prolongation of 
pregnancy to four hundred and twenty days, or 
sixty weeks. Dr. Atlee reports two cases, which 
nearly equalled three hundred and fifty-six days 
each. Professor Simpson of Edinburgh records, as 
having occurred in his own practice, cases in which 
the period reached three hundred and thirty-six, 
three hundred and thirty-two, three hundred and 
twenty-four, and three hundred and nineteen days. 
In the Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science 
a case of protracted pregnancy is related by Dr. 
Joynt. The evidence is positive that the minimum 
duration must have been three hundred and 
seventeen days, or about six weeks more than 
the average. Dr. Elsasser found, in one hundred 
and sixty cases of pregnancy, eleven protracted to 
periods varying from three hundred to three hun- 
dred and eighteen days. 

In treating of the subject of miscarriage, we 
mentioned instances, recorded by physicians of 
skill and probity, proving beyond a shade of doubt 
that a woman may give birth to a living child long 
before the expiration of the forty weeks. The 
Presbytery of Edinburgh, Scotland, some time 
since decided in favor of the legitimacy of an 
infant born alive, within twenty-five weeks after 
marriage, to the Rev. Fergus Jardine. 

One of the most enlightened countries in Europe 
has, in view of the facts in reference to the extreme 



LONG PREGNANCIES. 205 

limits of pregnancy, enacted, in the Code Napoleon, 
that a child born within three hundred days after 
the departure or death of the husband, or one hun- 
dred and eighty days after marriage, shall be con- 
sidered legitimate. The law further states that a 
child born after more than three hundred days 
shall not be necessarily declared a bastard, but 
its legitimacy may be contested. The Scotch 
legislation on this subject is very similar to the 
French. 

CAUSES OF PROTRACTED PREGNANCY. 

It has been asserted by some that an infant is 
born at ten or eleven months because that at nine 
months it has not acquired the growth which is 
necessary in order to induce the womb to dislodge 
it. The popular notion is, that a child carried 
beyond the usual term must necessarily be a large 
one. Rabelais has reflected this common opinion 
in his celebrated romance entitled ' Gargantua,' in 
which he represents the royal giant of that name as 
having been carried by his mother, Gargamelle, 
eleven months. When born, the child was so 
vigorous that he sucked the milk from ten nurses. 
He lived for several centuries, and at last begot a 
son, Pantagruel, as wonderful as himself. Such 
reasoning cannot, however, be seriously maintained, 
as many children carried longer than nine months 
have not been more fully developed than some 
born a few weeks prematurely ; and the size of 
the child has nothing to do with the bringing on of 
labor, as we shall show hereafter. Protracted preg- 
nancies are caused by a defect in the energy of the 



206 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

womb, induced by moral as well as physical influ- 
ences. As a rule, a woman who leads a regular 
life, and observes the physiological laws of her 
being, which laws it has been our aim to point out, 
will be confined at the term that nature usually 
marks out, that is, at the expiration of two hun- 
dred and eighty days, or forty weeks, from con- 
ception. 

This brings us to the consideration of the ques- 
tion, 

HOW TO CALCULATE THE TIME OF EXPECTED 
LABOR. 

Many rules for this purpose have been laid down. 
We shall merely give one, the most satisfactory and 
the most easily applied. It was suggested by the 
celebrated Professor Naegele of Heidelberg, and is 
now generally recommended and employed by phy- 
sicians. The point of departure in making the cal- 
culation is the day of the disappearance of the last 
monthly sickness ; three months are subtracted, and 
seven days added. The result corresponds to 
the day on which labor will commence, and will be 
found to be two hundred and eighty days from the 
time of conception, if _ that event has occurred, as 
ordinarily, immediately after the last menstrual 
period. Suppose, for instance, the cessation of the 
last monthly sickness happened on the 14th day 
of January ; subtract three months, and we have 
October 14; then add seven days, and we obtain the 
2 1st day of the ensuing October (two hundred and 
eighty days from January 14) as the time of the 
expected confinement. This method of making 



THE HYGIENE OF PREGNANCY. 20y 

the ' count ' may be relied upon with confidence, 
and only fails, by a few days, in those exceptional 
cases in which conception takes place just before 
the monthly period, or during the menstrual flow. 

CARE OF HEALTH DURING PREGNANCY. 

This subject, the proper management of the 
health from conception to childbirth, is worthy of 
careful consideration. The condition of pregnancy, 
though not one of disease, calls for peculiar solici- 
tude, lest it should lead to some affection in the 
mother or in the child. For it ought. to be remem- 
bered that the welfare of a new being is now in the 
balance. The woman has no longer an independent 
existence. She has entered upon the circle of her 
maternal duties. She became a mother when she 
conceived. The child, though unborn, lives within 
her ; its life is a part of her own, and so frail, that 
any indiscretion on her part may destroy it. The 
danger to the child is not imaginary, as the large 
number of miscarriages and still-births proves. 

All mothers desire to have healthy, well-formed, 
intelligent children. How few conduct themselves 
in such a manner as to secure a happy development 
of their offspring! Puny, deformed, and feeble- 
minded infants are daily ushered into the world 
because of a want of knowledge, or a sinful neglect 
of those special measures imperatively demanded 
in the ordering of the daily life, by the changed 
state of the system consequent upon pregnancy. 
We shall therefore point out those laws which can- 
not be infringed with impunity, and indicate the 
diet, exercise, dress, and, in general, the conduct 
18 » 



208 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

most favorable to the mother and child during this 
critical period, in which the wife occupies, as it 
were, an intermediate state between health and 
sickness. 

FOOD. 

The nourishment taken during pregnancy should 
be abundant, but not, in the early months, larger 
in quantity than usual. Excess in eating or 
drinking ought to be most carefully avoided. 
The food is to be taken at shorter intervals 
than is common, and it should be plain, simple, 
and nutritious. Fatty articles, the coarser vege- 
tables, highly salted and sweet food, if found to 
disagree, as is often the case, should be abstained 
from. The flesh of young animals — as lamb, 
veal, chicken, and fresh fish — -is wholesome, and 
generally agrees with the stomach. Ripe fruits 
are beneficial. The diet should be varied as much 
as possible from day to day. The craving which 
some women have in the night or early morning 
may be relieved by a biscuit, a little milk, or a cup 
of coffee. When taken a few hours before rising, 
this will generally be retained, and prove very 
grateful, even though the morning sickness be 
troublesome. Any food or medicine that will con- 
fine or derange the bowels is to be forbidden. The 
taste is, as a rule, a safe guide, and it may be rea- 
sonably indulged. Bat inordinate, capricious de- 
sires for improper, noxious articles, should, of 
course, be opposed. Such longings, however, are 
not often experienced by those properly brought 
up. It is a curious fact, that the modification in 



ATTENTION TO DRESS NECESSARY. 209 

the digestive system during pregnancy is some- 
times so great that substances ordinarily the most 
indigestible are eaten, without any inconvenience, 
and even with benefit, while the most healthful 
articles become hurtful, and act like poison. 

As pregnancy advances, particularly after the 
sixth month, a larger amount of food, and that of a 
more substantial character, will be required. The 
number of meals in the day should then be increased, 
rather than the quantity taken at each meal. 

CLOTHING, 

The dress during pregnancy should be loose and 
comfortable, nowhere pressing tightly or unequally. 
The word enceinte, by which a pregnant woman is 
designated, meant, originally, without a cincture, — 
that is, unbound. The Roman matrons, so soon 
as they conceived, were obliged to remove their 
girdles. Lycurgus caused the enactment of the 
Spartan law, that pregnant women should wear 
large dresses, so as not to prejudice the free develop- 
ment of the precious charges of which nature had 
rendered them the momentary depositaries. Stays 
or corsets may be used, in a proper manner, dur- 
ing the first five or six months of pregnancy, but 
after that they should either be laid aside, or worn 
very loosely. Any attempt at concealing preg- 
nancy, by tight lacing and the application of a 
stronger busk, cannot be too severely condemned. 
By this false delicacy the mother is subjected to 
great suffering, and the child placed in jeopardy. 
The shape of the stays should be moulded to that 
of the changing figure, and great care should be 



2IO THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

taken that they do not depress the nipple or irritate 
the enlarging breasts. 

The amount of clothing should be suited to the 
season, but rather increased than diminished, owing 
to the great susceptibility of the system to the 
vicissitudes of the weather. It is especially im- 
portant that flannel drawers should be worn during 
advanced pregnancy, as the loose dress favors the 
admission of cold air to the unprotected parts of 
the body. A neglect of this precaution sometimes 
leads to the establishment of the painful disease 
known as rheumatism of the womb. 

Pressure upon the lower limbs, in the neighbor- 
hood of the knee or the ankle joint, should be 
avoided, more particularly towards the last months. 
It is apt to produce enlargement and knotting of 
the veins, swelling and ulcers of the legs, by which 
many women are crippled during their pregnancies, 
and sometimes through life. Therefore the garters 
should not be tightly drawn, and gaiters should 
not be too closely fitted, while yet they should 
firmly support the ankle. 

EXERCISE. 

Moderate exercise in the open air is proper and 
conducive to health during the whole period of 
pregnancy. It should never be so active nor so pro- 
longed as to induce fatigue. Walking is the best 
form of exercise. Riding in a badly- constructed 
carriage, or over a rough road, or upon horseback, 
as well as running, dancing, and the lifting or car- 
rying of heavy weights, should be scrupulously 
avoided, as liable to cause rupture, severe flooding, 



HYGIENIC RULES. 211 

and miscarriage. During the early months, in 
particular, extraordinarily long walks and dancing 
ought not to be indulged in. Journeys are not to 
be taken while in the pregnant state. Railway 
travelling is decidedly objectionable. The vibra- 
tory motion of the cars is apt to produce headache, 
sickness at the stomach, faintness, and premature 
labor. All these precautions are especially to be 
observed in the first pregnancy. 

We must not be understood as condemning exer- 
cise and fresh air. They are of the greatest im- 
portance to mother and child. But the amount 
of exercise should be regulated by the dictates of 
common sense and the woman's own sensations. 
If she can only walk a short distance each day with 
comfort, let that suffice. She should not force her- 
self to go to a certain place nor to promenade during 
a certain time in the twenty-four hours. So soon as 
fatigue is felt, the walk should cease. Let the walks 
be frequent and short, rather than few and long. 
They should also be made as pleasant as possible, 
by companionship and surroundings that will occupy 
the feelings and imagination in an agreeable manner 
with new and cheerful impressions. A tendency to 
indolence is to be combated. A gently active life is 
best calculated to preserve the health of the mother 
and her unborn child. But with even the most 
robust a moderation of the ordinary pursuits and 
avocations is called for. The nervous and delicate 
cannot make with safety their customary daily exer- 
tions in the performance of their household or social 
duties and pleasures. 

Towards the end of pregnancy the wife should 

18* o 2 



212 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

economize her forces. She should not remain long 
standing or kneeling, nor sing in either of these 
postures. 

BATHIXG. 

Those who have not been accustomed to bathing 
should not begin the practice during pregnancy, 
and in any case great care should be exercised 
during the latter months. It is better to preserve 
cleanliness by sponging with tepid water than 
by entire baths. Foot-baths are always dan- 
gerous. Sea-bathing sometimes causes miscarriage, 
but sea air and the sponging of the body with salt 
water are beneficial. The shower-bath is of course 
too great a shock to the system, and a very warm 
bath is too relaxing. In some women of a nervous 
temperament, a lukewarm bath taken occasionally 
at night during pregnancy has a calming influence. 
This is especially the case in the first and last 
month. But women of a lymphatic temperament 
and of a relaxed habit of body are always injured 
by the bath. 

VENTILATION. 

We have spoken of the benefits of outdoor air 
during pregnancy. Attention should also be di- 
rected to keeping the atmosphere in the sitting 
and sleeping rooms of the house fresh. This can 
only be accomplished by constantly changing it. 
The doors and windows of every room, while 
unoccupied, should be kept thrown open in the 
summer-time, and opened sufficiently often in the 
winter to wash out the apartments several times a 
day w r ith fresh air. The extremes of heat and cold 



HOW TO PRESERVE THE HEALTH. 21 3 

are to be, with equal care, avoided. The house 
should be kept light. Young plants will not grow 
well in the dark. Neither will the young child nor 
its mother flourish without sunlight. The ancients 
were so well aware of this, that they constructed on 
the top of each house a solarium, or solar air-bath, 
where they basked daily, in thin attire, in the direct 
rays of the sun. 

SLEEP. 

During pregnancy a large amount of sleep is 
required. It has a sedative influence upon the dis- 
turbed nervous system of the mother. It favors, 
by the calmness of all the functions which attends 
it, the growth of the foetus. Neither the pursuit of 
pleasure in the evening, nor the observance of any 
trite maxims in regard to early rising in the morn- 
ing, should be allowed to curtail the hours devoted 
to slumber. Pregnant women have an instinctive 
desire to lie abed late, which, like the other 
promptings of nature during this period, should 
not be disregarded. At least eight hours out of 
the twenty-four can be profitably spent in bed. No 
night-watching ought ever to be undertaken during 
pregnancy. 

Feather beds should be avoided. The heat which 
they maintain about the body is inconvenient and 
dangerous, predisposing to flooding and exhausting 
perspirations. The hairx>r sponge mattress is to be 
preferred. The bed-clothing should not be too 
heavy. Blankets are to be employed rather than 
coverlids, as they are lighter and more permeable 
to perspiration. The mattress and cover should be 
well aired during the day. The sleeping-room 



214 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

should be capacious and well ventilated, and no 
curtains permitted about the bed. 

Occasional rest is also necessary in the day-time. 
A nap of an hour or two upon a sofa or lounge will 
then prove very refreshing. In the earlier months 
of pregnancy it will tend to prevent miscarriage, 
and in the latter months to relieve the distress con- 
sequent upon the increased size of the womb. It is 
not unusual, as the close of pregnancy approaches, 
for a feeling of suffocation to ensue when the woman 
attempts to lie down. This may be overcome by 
supporting the back and shoulders with cushions 
and pillows. Or a bed-chair may be employed. 
This, if well constructed and covered, will often be 
found very grateful at night, in the last few weeks 
of pregnancy. 

THE MIND. 

A tranquil mind is of the first importance to 
the pregnant woman. Gloomy forebodings should 
not be encouraged. Pregnancy and labor are not, 
we repeat, diseased conditions. They are healthful 
processes, and should be looked upon as such by 
every woman. Bad labors are very infrequent. It 
is as foolish to dread them, as it is for the railway 
traveller to give way to misgivings in regard to his 
safety. Instead of desponding, science bids the 
woman to look forward with cheerfulness and hope 
to the joys of maternity. 

The bad effects of fear upon the mother's mind 
are illustrated by Plutarch, who, in his Life of 
Publicola, mentions that, ' at a time when a super- 
stitious fear overran the city of Rome, all the 



HYGIENE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 21 5 

women then pregnant brought forth imperfect 
children, and were prematurely delivered.' But 
we have already spoken, in treating of mothers' 
marks, of the influence of mental emotions over 
the unborn child, and the necessity of avoiding 
their exciting causes. 

Because of their deleterious tendency, severe 
study as well as arduous and protracted manual 
labor ought to be avoided. The nervous systems 
of many women are also injuriously affected during 
pregnancy by perfumes, which at other times are 
agreeable and innocuous. It is therefore prudent 
not only to exclude all offensive scents, but also to 
abstain from the strong odors of various strong 
perfumes, eau-de-cologne, and of flowers. Large 
bouquets often cause feelings of faintness, and 
sometimes temporary loss of consciousness. The 
extreme liability of the nervous system of the preg- 
nant woman to be afiected injuriously to herself 
and child by scenes of suffering or distress, and by 
disgusting or frightful objects, cannot be too strongly 
impressed upon every one. She should be protected 
from all that will disturb her, and should be con- 
stantly treated with soothing and encouraging 
kindness. Her manifestations of irritability, her 
caprices, her melancholy anticipations, are not to be 
scoffed at, but combated with a mixture of reason- 
ing and patient forbearance. On her part, she 
should endeavour to co-operate with those around 
her, in sedulously shunning all injurious influences, 
and in banishing as quickly as possible all improper 
longings. She should remember that, although she 
herself may escape mischief from them, her child 



2l6 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

may suffer. She is the custodian of interests dearer 
to her than her own. 

RELATION OF HUSBAND AND WIFE DURING 
PREGNANCY. 

During those days when the wife, if she were not 
pregnant, would have been ' unwell,' marital inter- 
course should be abstained from. It is then in- 
jurious to the mother, and dangerous to the life of 
the child, as it is liable to excite miscarriage. But 
if this habitual epoch of the monthly sickness be 
avoided, there is no reason why passion should not 
be gratified in moderation and with caution during 
the whole period of pregnancy. There is one ex- 
ception to be made to this general course of conduct. 
In those cases in which a miscarriage has occurred 
in the first pregnancy, every precaution should be 
employed — for reasons which have been dwelt upon 
in a previous article — to prevent its happening again 
after the second conception. Under such excep- 
tional circumstances, therefore, the husband and 
wife should sleep apart during the first five months 
of pregnancy. After that period their ordinary re- 
lations may be resumed. When a miscarriage has 
taken place, intercourse should not be permitted 
within a month of the accident. The observance 
of this direction is of the utmost importance. Its 
neglect is the frequent cause of severe and intract- 
able diseases of the womb. 

EFFECT OF PREGNANCY ON HEALTH. 
We have had occasion to remark that pregnancy 
is not a condition of disease. It is not only an 



EFFECT OF PREGNANCY ON HEALTH. 2\J 

evidence of health, but during its continuance it 
confers increased physical vigor. As a rule, a 
woman enjoys better health during her pregnancy 
than at any other time ; she is less liable to con- 
tagious and other maladies ; she is less apt to die 
than at any other period of her life ; and her 
general constitution seems also then to receive a 
favorable impress, for wives and mothers live 
longer than celibates. It is wisely decreed that 
when woman is engaged in this, to her, anxious 
stage of reproduction, she shall not be exposed to 
the pains and dangers of disease, and that those 
great covenants of nature — marriage and child- 
bearing — shall be rewarded by added strength and 
length of days. 

There are certain disorders incident, in excep- 
tional cases, to pregnancy, of which we shall shortly 
speak. In general, however, we repeat that this 
condition is one of extraordinary health. More 
than this, in numerous instances it exerts an ame- 
liorating influence upon pre-existing diseases, sus- 
pending their march, or bringing about a decidedly 
curative effect. Thus, various obstinate chronic 
affections of the skin, of the womb and ovaries, 
and of the brain and nervous system, frequently get 
well during pregnancy ; and it is well known to 
every physician, that by the judicious management 
of this state, and of the lying-in period, troublesome 
displacements of the womb may be arrested. 

It should nevertheless ever be recollected that 
the condition of pregnancy is one of excitement 
and enhanced susceptibility to impressions of all 
kinds. For this reason a change in the habits of 



2l8 THE WIFE DURING PREGNANCY. 

life is necessary ; and the importance of the direc- 
tions laid down for the care of the health during 
this period, cannot be too strongly insisted upon. 

The diseases to which the wife is exposed during 
pregnancy will be treated of in the chapter on 
" Health in Marriage." 



CONFINEMENT. 



PREPARATIONS FOR CHILD-BIRTH. 

Certain foolish preparations are sometimes made 
by wives, with the best intentions. Perhaps one of 
the most common and absurd of these is the local 
use of sweet oil, in order to facilitate the dilatation 
of the parts, for which purpose it is perfectly inert. 
There are, however, some wise and even necessary 
precautions which every wife should know and em- 
ploy, to guard against unpleasant and dangerous 
complications in childbirth. 

In particular, the condition of the breasts towards 
the close of pregnancy demands attention. Scarcely 
any pain in the lying-in chamber is greater or 
more difficult to bear than that which the young 
mother suffers from excoriated nipples. This 
troublesome and often very intractable affection is 
nearly always the consequence of the want of care 
previous to confinement. During the latter part of 
pregnancy the nipples sometimes become sunken 
or flat, being retracted as the breasts increase in 
size, because of the want of elasticity on the part of 
the milk tubes. In order to remedy this fault, we 
have known a breast-pump or puppy to be applied. 
Such treatment is dangerous, as it may excite pre- 
mature contraction of the womb, and miscarriage. 
19 



220 THE WIFE DURING CONFINEMENT. 

Nipple-shields, with broad bases and openings, 
should always be obtained. They are safe, and 
effectually secure the prominence of the nipples, 
when worn constantly, day and night, during the 
last month or so of pregnancy. Wives who have 
never had children ought to take special care to 
ascertain before labor whether this depressed con- 
dition of the nipples exists, and to correct it in the 
manner indicated. 

In the first pregnancy it is also important to 
harden the nipples. This may be done by occasion- 
ally gently rubbing them between the thumb and 
finger, and by bathing them twice a day during the 
last six weeks with tincture of myrrh, or with a 
mixture of equal parts of brandy and water, to 
which a little alum has been added. This pro- 
cedure will render the surfaces less sensitive to the 
friction of the child's mouth, and thus avert the 
distress so often occasioned in the first confinement 
by tenderness of the nipples. 

If the nipples be rough or nodulated in appear- 
ance, like a strawberry or a raspberry, they are 
more apt to become excoriated or fissured than if 
they present a smooth surface. Under such cir- 
cumstances, make a solution of the sulphate of zinc, 
of the strength of one grain to the ounce of rose 
water, in a wide-mouthed bottle, then tilt the bottle 
upon the nipple, and allow it to remain there for a 
few minutes several times a day. Simple tender- 
ness of the nipples and slight fissures may be 
averted by the application either of a lotion of 
borax (two scruples of borax in three ounces of' 
water, and an ounce of glycerine), of the honey of 



PREPARATIONS FOR CHILD-BIRTH, 221 

borax, or of the tincture of catechu, and by pro- 
tecting the parts from the pressure of the stays 
and the friction of the flannel vest. 

It is of the greatest moment to the comfort of 
the mother, that all affections of the nipples should 
be prevented or remedied before labor ; for the 
treatment of sore nipples when the child is at the 
breast is often unsatisfactory, while the suffering 
they occasion is very great, even sometimes giving 
rise to mammary abscess. 

There are certain articles of 'clothing and dressings 
for the bed which should be cared for in advance, in 
order that they may be ready when required. 

The mother should be provided with short- 
gowns, to be worn over the chemise instead of the 
ordinary night-gowns. It is of consequence to 
procure a proper bandage. It should be made of 
heavy muslin, neither too coarse nor too fine ; an 
ordinarily good quality of unbleached muslin is the 
best. The material is to be cut bias, about one 
and a quarter yard in length, and from twelve to 
eighteen inches in breadth, varying, of course, with 
the size of the person. It should be just large 
enough to encircle the body after confinement, 
with a margin of a couple of inches, and to extend 
down below the fulness of the hips. The measure- 
ment should be taken, and the bandage made to 
fit, when four and a half months advanced. It 
should be narrow above, wider below, and gored in 
such a manner that it will be a little narrower at 
the lower extremity than a few inches above, so as 
to prevent it, when adjusted, from sliding upwards. 
A bandage constructed in this manner will be very 



222 THE WIFE DURING CONFINEMENT. 

comfortable ; and is not apt to become displaced, 
after application, as is invariably the case when 
a towel or a straight piece of muslin is used. The 
way in which it is to be applied will be detailed 
hereafter. 

The child s clothing should consist first of a piece 
of flannel or some woollen material for a binder. 
This should be from four to six inches in width, 
and from twelve to sixteen inches in length ; that 
is to say, wide enough to extend from the arm-pits 
to the lower part of the abdomen, and long enough 
to go once and a half times around the child, 
having the double fold to come over the abdomen. 
There should be no embroidery about this. A 
shirt, which it is desirable should be woollen, is to 
be provided to place over the binder. It should be 
made to come up tolerably high in the neck, and 
to extend down the arm. Neither it nor any other 
portion of the child's clothing should be starched. 
The petticoat, which may be open its whole length 
behind, is to be put over the shirt ; two may be 
used — a short and a long one. Next comes the 
child's ordinary frock or slip, and above this an 
apron to protect the dress from the frequent dis- 
charges from the stomach. Then a shawl, of 
flannel or any other warm material, is to be pro- 
vided, to throw over the shoulders if the weather be 
cold. Socks, and pieces of old soft linen, free 
from stiffening, for napkins or diapers, complete the 
child's outfit. 

For the permanent and temporary dressing of the 
bed there should be provided a piece of impervious 
cloth (oiled silk is the neatest) about a yard 



PRE PARA TIONS FOR CHILD-BIR TH. 223 

square ; a piece of ordinary table oil-cloth or 
rubber-cloth ; a number of old sheets and comfort- 
ables, and a piece of thick carpet. The manner 
in which these are to be used will be explained 
shortly. 

A pair of small rounded scissors ; a package of 
large pins, one and a half inches in length, for the 
bandage of the mother, and smaller ones for that 
of the child ; some good linen bobbin for the doctor 
to tie the navel-string ; good toilet soap and fine 
surgical sponge for washing the child ; a piece of 
soft linen or muslin for dressing the navel ; a box 
of unirritating powder ; and a pile of towels, — 
should all be had and laid aside many weeks before 
they are wanted. These, together with the material 
for dressing the bed, the child's clothing, and the 
mother's bandage, ought to be placed together in a 
basket got for the purpose, in order that they may 
all be easily and certainly found at a time when 
perhaps the hurry and excitement of the moment 
would render it difficult otherwise to collect them 
all immediately. 

SIGNS OF APPROACHING LABOR. 

One of the earliest of the preliminary signs of 
the coming on of confinement occurs about two 
weeks before that event. It is a dropping or sub- 
sidence of the womb. The summit of that orean 
then descends, in most cases, from above to below 
the umbilicus, and the abdomen becomes smaller. 
The stomach and lungs are relieved from pressure, 
the woman breathes more freely, the sense of op- 
pression which troubled her previously is lost, and 
19* 



224 THE WIFE DURING CONFINEMENT. N 

she says she feels ' very comfortable.' This sensa- 
tion of lightness and buoyancy increases, and a few 
days before the setting in of labor she feels so 
much better that she thinks she will take an extra 
amount of exercise. The mother of a number of 
children is acquainted with this sign, but the wife 
with her first child may exert herself unduly in the 
house or out- doors, and induce labor when in the 
street or away from home. Hence the importance 
of a knowledge of this premonitory symptom. 

A second precursory sign of labor is found in the 
increased fulness of the external parts, and an aug- 
mented mucous secretion, which may amount even 
to a discharge resembling whites, and requiring the 
wearing of a napkin. This symptom is a good one, 
indicating a disposition to relaxation, and promising 
an easy time. 

The third preliminary sign which we shall men- 
tion, is the change in the mental state of the preg- 
nant woman. She has a feeling of anxiety and of 
fidgetiness, sometimes accompanied with depres- 
sion of spirits. This condition of emotional distress, 
modified in particular cases by reason, self-control, 
and religion, may continue for several days, perhaps, 
when 

THE SYMPTOMS OF ACTUAL LABOR 

make their appearance. The first of these is gene- 
rally the ' show.' It is the discharge of the plug of 
mucus which has occupied the neck of the womb 
up to this time, and is ordinarily accompanied by a 
little blood. Perhaps before this, or perhaps not for 
some hours after, the ' pains ' will develope them- 



LABOR PAINS. 22$ 

selves. These recur periodically, at intervals of an 
hour or half an hour at the outset, and are * grind- 
ing' in character. True labor pains are distin- 
guished from false by the fact that they are felt in 
the back, passing on to the thighs, while false pains 
are referred to the abdomen ; by their intermittent 
character, the spurious pains being more or less 
continuous ; and by the steady increase in their 
frequency and severity. In case of doubt as to 
their exact nature, the doctor should be summoned, 
who will be able to determine positively whether 
labor has begun. 

The other symptoms which point to the actual 
commencement of labor are a frequent desire to 
empty the bowels and bladder, nausea and vomiting, 
which, in the early part of confinement, is a good 
sign ; shiverings, unattended with any sensation of 
cold ; and, finally, the rupture and discharge of the 
contents of the ' bag of waters.' 

Before passing on to the consideration of the 
management of the confinement into which the wife 
has now entered, a few words may be appropriately 
said upon the 

CAUSE OF LABOR. 

Neither the size nor the vigor of the child has any 
influence in bringing about delivery at full term. 
The ancient theory — which received the support of 
the distinguished naturalist Buffon — that the infant 
was the active agent in causing its own expulsion, 
is an exploded one. It was asserted by some that 
hunger excited the foetus to struggle to free itself 
from the womb ; others were disposed to attribute 

p 



226 THE WIFE DURING CONFINEMENT. 

its efforts to accomplish its entrance into the world, 
to the need of respiration which it experienced. 
But all these ingenious theories, which presupposed 
the embryo to be actuated by the same feelings 
which would influence a grown person if shut up in 
such a confined abode, are unsatisfactory, and not 
tenable. It is well known that the child may die 
in the womb, without retarding or interfering in 
any way with the coming on of the process of 
labor. This fact alone shows that the foetus is, or 
at any rate may be, absolutely passive either in 
regard to the induction or advancement of delivery. 
The determining cause of labo'r is seated in the 
womb itself. The contractions of this organ occa- 
sion the ' pains ' and expel the child, assisted by 
the muscles of the abdomen and the diaphragm. 
That the assistance of the latter forces is not neces- 
sary, is conclusively proved by the occurrence of 
childbirth after the decease of the mother. For 
instance, a case is on record in which labor com- 
menced and twins were born after the mother had 
been dead for three days. 

CARE DURING LABOR. 

We will suppose labor to have commenced. The 
preparation of the bed for the occupancy of the 
mother is now to be attended to. As she % is to lie 
on the left side of the bed, this is the side, and the 
only one, which is to be dressed for the occasion. 
In order to do so, remove the outer bed-clothes one 
at a time, folding them neatly on the right side of 
the bed so that they can easily be drawn over when 
desired. The permanent dressing is to be placed 



HOW TO CONDUCT A LABOR. 227 

beneath the lower sheet and upon the mattress. A 
soft impervious cloth — which, in speaking of the 
preparation for confinement, we directed to be pro- 
cured — is placed next to the surface of the bed. 
The upper edge should be nearly as high as the 
margin of the bolster, and it should extend down 
to a distance at least a foot below the level of the 
hips, so as to certainly protect the bed from the 
discharges. Upon the top of this a blanket or 
sheet is laid, and the whole fastened by pins. The 
lower sheet of the bed, which had been turned over 
to the right side, to permit the application of the 
dressing, is now to be replaced. Over the position 
of this permanent dressing, on the top of the bed- 
sheet, a neatly-folded sheet, with the folded edge 
down, is adjusted and pinned in its place. It is 
upon this sheet that the patient is to be drawn up 
after her confinement, which will take place upon 
the temporary dressing of the bed now to be ar- 
ranged. It consists of an oil-cloth, which should 
extend up beyond the lower edge of the permanent 
dressing, overlapping the folded sheet which has 
been placed above it, and should fall over the side 
and bottom of the bed. A comfortable or any soft 
absorbent material is placed over this impervious 
cloth and covered with a folded sheet, completing 
the temporary dressing. The bed-clothes may now 
be adjusted, concealing the dressings from view 
until they are wanted. The valances at the foot of 
the bed should be raised, and a piece of carpet 
placed on the floor. The bed should have no foot- 
board, or a very low one. 

The dress of the mother. — Either a folded sheet 

p 2 



228 THE WIFE DURING CONFINEMENT. 

should be adjusted around the waist as the only 
skirt, so as not to interfere with the walking, or a 
second chemise should be put on, with the arms 
outside the sleeves, to extend from the waist to the 
feet. Then the chemise next the body should be 
drawn up and folded high up around the breast 
It should be plaited neatly along the back, and 
brought forward and fastened by pins. This should 
be thoroughly done, so that the linen may not be 
found wet nor soiled when it is drawn down after 
confinement. A wrapper or dressing-gown may be 
worn during the first stage of labor, before it is 
necessary to go to bed. When, however, that time 
comes, the wife will take her place on her left side 
on the temporary dressing, with a sheet thrown 
over her, her head on a pillow so situated that her 
body will be bent well forward, and her feet against 
the bed-post. A sheet should be twisted into a 
cord and fastened to the foot of the bed, for her to 
seize with her hands during the accession of the 
' bearing-down pains.' Care should be taken to 
have a number of napkins, a pot of fresh lard, and 
the basket containing the scissors, ligature, bandage, 
etc. — which have been previously enumerated in the 
remarks on preparations for childbirth — at hand, 
for the use of the doctor. 

We have now noted all that it is useful for the 
wife to know in regard to the preparation for 
and management of confinement, when a physician 
is in attendance, as, for obvious reasons, he should 
always be. In some instances, however, the ab- 
sence of the doctor is unavoidable, or the labor is 
completed before his arrival. As a guide to the 



HOW TO CONDUCT A LABOR. 229 

performance of the necessary duties of the lying-in 
room under such circumstances, we give some 

HINTS TO ATTENDANTS. 

The room during confinement should be kept quiet. 
Too many persons must not be allowed in it, as they 
contaminate the air, and are apt by their conversation 
to disturb the patient, either exciting or depressing 
her. So soon as the head is born, it should be 
immediately ascertained whether the neck is en- 
circled by the cord ; if so, it should be removed or 
loosened. The neglect of this precaution may 
result fatally to the infant, as happened a short 
time since in our own practice ; the infant, born a 
few minutes before our arrival, being found strangled 
with the cord about its neck. It is also of import- 
ance at once to allow of the entrance of air to the 
face, to put the finger in the mouth to remove any 
obstruction which may interfere with respiration, 
and to lay the babe on its right side, with the head 
removed from the discharges. The cord should 
not be tied until the infant is heard to cry. The 
ligature is to be applied in the following manner : — 
A piece of bobbin is thrown around the navel- 
string, and tied with a double knot at the distance 
of three fingers' breadth from the umbilicus ; a 
second piece is tied an inch beyond the first, and 
the cord divided with the scissors between the two, 
care being taken not to clip off a finger or otherwise 
injure the unsuspecting little infant, as has occurred 
in careless hands more than once. When the child 
is separated from the mother, a warm blanket or a 
piece of flannel should be ready to receive it. In 



230 THE WIFE DURING CONFINEMENT. 

taking hold of the little stranger, it may slip out of 
the hands and be injured. To guard against this 
accident, which is very apt to occur with awkward 
or inexperienced persons, always seize the back 
portion of the neck in the space bounded by the 
thumb and first finger of one hand, and grasp the 
thighs with the other. In this way it may be 
safely carried. It should be transferred, wrapped 
up in its blanket, to some secure place, and never 
put in an arm-chair, where it may be crushed by 
some one who does not observe that the chair is 
already occupied. The head of the child should 
not be so covered as to incur any danger of 
suffocation. 

ATTENTION TO THE MOTHER. 

When the after-birth has come away, the mother 
should be drawn up a short distance — six or eight 
inches— in bed, and the sheet which has been pinned 
around her, together with the temporary dressing of 
the bed removed, a clean folded sheet being introduced 
under the hips. The parts should be gently washed 
with warm water and a soft sponge or a cloth, after 
which an application of equal parts of claret wine 
and water will prove pleasant and beneficial. We 
have also found the anointing of the external and 
internal parts with goose grease, which has been 
thoroughly washed in several hot waters, to be very 
soothing and efficient in speedily allaying all irrita- 
tion. This ought all to be done under cover, to 
guard against the taking of cold. The chemise 
pinned up around the breast should now be loosened, 
and the woman is ready for the application of the 



HOW TO CONDUCT A LABOR. 23 1 

bandage, which is to be put on next the skin. If 
properly and nicely adjusted, it will prove very 
grateful. The directions for making it have already 
been given. In order to apply it, one half of its 
length should be folded up into plaits, and the 
mother should lie on her left side ; lay the plaited 
end of the bandage underneath the left side of the 
patient, carrying it as far under as possible, and draw 
the loose end over the abdomen ; then let the mother 
roll over on her back upon the bandage, and draw out 
the plaited end. If the abdominal muscles are much 
relaxed and the hip-bones prominent, a compress 
of two or three towels will be wanted. The bandage 
should be fkst tightened in the middle by a pin 
applied laterally, for strings should never be em- 
ployed. The pins should be placed at intervals of 
about an inch. The lower portion of the bandage 
should be made quite tight, to prevent it slipping 
up. The mother is now ready to be drawn up in 
bed upon the permanent dressing : this should be 
done without any exertion on her part. A napkin 
should be laid smoothly under the hips (never 
folded up), to receive the discharges. If she prefer 
to lie on her left side, place a pillow behind her 
back. 

ATTENTION TO THE CHILD. 

The baby may now be washed and dressed. Be- 
fore beginning, everything that is wanted should 
be close at hand, namely a basin of warm water, 
a large quantity of lard or some other unctuous 
material, soap, fine sponge, and a basket containing 
the binder, shirt, and other articles of clothing. 
20 



232 THE WIFE DURING CONFINEMENT. 

First rub the child's body thoroughly with lard. 
The covering can only.be removed in this way ; the 
use of soap alone will have no effect unless the 
friction be so great as to take off also the skin. 
The nurse should take a handful of lard and rub it 
in with the palm of the hand, particularly in the 
flexures of the joints. In anointing one part, the 
others should be covered, to prevent the child from 
taking cold. If the child is thus made perfectly 
clean, do not use any soap and water, because the 
skin is left in a more healthful condition by the 
lard, and there is risk of the child's taking cold 
from the evaporation of the water. But the face 
may be washed with soap and wate*, great care 
being taken not to let the soap get into the child's 
eyes, which is one of the most frequent causes of 
sore eyes in infants. The navel-string is now to be 
dressed. This is done by wrapping it up in a cir- 
cular piece of soft muslin, well oiled, with a hole in 
its centre. The bandage is next to be applied. 
The object of its use is to protect the child's abdo- 
men against cold, and to keep the dressing of the 
cord in its position. The nature, shape, and size of 
the binder have been described. It should be 
pinned in front, three pins being generally suffi- 
cient. The rest of the clothing before enumerated 
is then put on. 

The child is now to be applied to the breast at once. 
This is to be done, for three reasons. First, it very 
often prevents flooding, which is apt otherwise to 
occur. Secondly, it tends to prevent milk fever, by 
averting the violent rush of the milk on the third 
day, and the consequent engorgement of the breast 



HOW TO CONDUCT A LABOR. 233 

and constitutional disturbance. The third reason 
is, that there is always a secretion in the breast 
from the first, which it is desirable for the child to 
have ; for it acts as a cathartic, stimulating the 
liver, and cleansing the bowels from the secretions 
which fill them at the time of birth. There is 
generally sufficient nourishment in the breasts for 
the child for the first few days. The mother may 
lie on the one side or the other, and receive the 
child upon the arm of that upon which she is lying. 
If the nipple be not perfectly drawn out so that the 
child can grasp it in its mouth, the difficulty may 
be overcome by filling a porter-bottle with hot 
water, emptying it, and then placing the mouth of 
the bottle immediately over the nipple. This will 
cause, as the bottle cools, a sufficient amount of 
suction to elevate the sunken nipple. The bottle 
should then be removed and the child substituted, 
■ — a little sugar and water or sweetened milk being 
applied, if necessary, to tempt the child to take the 
breast. 

FURTHER ATTENTION TO THE MOTHER. 

The patient should be cleansed every four or 
jive hours. A soft napkin, wet with warm soap and 
water, should for this purpose be passed underneath 
the bed-clothing, without exposing the surface to a 
draft of air. After using the soap and water, apply 
again the dilute claret wine and the goose grease. 
Much of the safety of the mother depends upon the 
observation of cleanliness. The napkin should not 
be allowed to remain so long as to become saturated 
with the discharges. 



234 THE WIFE DURING CONFINEMENT. 

The mother should maintain rigidly the recum- 
bent position for the first few days, not raising her 
shoulders from the pillow for any purpose, and 
should abstain from receiving visitors, and from any 
social conversation for the first twenty-four hours. 

For the first three or four days, uatil the milk 
has come and the milk fever passed, the mother 
should live upon light food, — oatmeal gruel, tea 
and toast, panada, or anything else of little bulk and 
unstimulating character. Afterwards the diet may 
be increased by the addition of chicken, lamb, mutton 
or oyster broth, buttered toast, and eggs. The object 
of light nourishment at first is to prevent the too rapid 
secretion of milk, which might be attended with 
evil local and constitutional effects. If, however, 
the mother be in feeble health, it will be necessary 
from the outset that she shall be supported with 
nourishing concentrated food. Beef-tea will then 
be found very serviceable, particularly if made ac- 
cording to the following recipe : — Take a pound of 
fresh beef from the loins or neck. Free it carefully 
from all fat. Cut it up into fine pieces, and add a 
very little salt and five grains of unbroken black 
pepper. Pour on it a pint of cold water, and 
simmer for forty minutes. Then pour off the liquor, 
place the meat in a cloth, and, after squeezing the 
juice from it into the tea, throw it aside. Return to 
the fire, and boil for ten minutes. 

After the first week, the diet of the lying-in 
woman should always be nutritious, though plain 
and simple. The development of the mammary 
glands, the production of the mammary secretion, 
and the reduction which takes place in the size of 



THE PERIOD OF LYING-IN. 235 

the womb, all require increased nourishment, that 
they may be properly performed. 

After the third or fourth day the dress should be 
changed. The dress worn during labor, if our direc- 
tions have been carried out, will not have been 
soiled. The clothing should be changed without 
uncovering the person, and without raising the head 
from the pillow. Pull the bed-gown from over each 
arm, and draw it out from under the body. Then 
unfasten the chemise in front and draw it down 
underneath her so that it can be removed from 
below, as it should not be carried over the head. 
Place her arms in the sleeves of the clean chemise, 
throw its body over her head, and, without lifting 
her shoulders from the bed, draw it down. Then 
change the bed-gown in the same manner. 

In changing the upper sheet, it should be pulled 
off from below, and the clean one carried down in 
its place from above, underneath the other clothing, 
which can be readily accomplished by plaiting the 
lower half. In introducing a clean under-sheet, one 
side of it should be plaited and placed under the 
patient, lying on her left side ; when she turns on 
her back, the plaits can then be readily drawn out. 
These directions, though apparently trivial, are im- 
portant. The object is to guard against the great 
danger to which the mother is exposed by sitting 
up in bed for even a few minutes during the first 
week. 

Cathartic medicine should not be administered 
the first, the third, or any other day after confine- 
ment, unless it is needed. If the patient is perfectly 

comfortable, has no pain in the abdomen, no head- 
20* 



2 $6 THE WIFE DURING CONFINEMENT. 

ache, and is well in every respect, she should be let 
alone, even if her bowels have not been moved. If 
a laxative be called for, citrate of magnesia is 
much pleasanter and equally as efficacious as the 
caster-oil so frequently administered on this occa- 
sion. 

TO HAVE LABOR WITHOUT PAIN. 

Is it possible to avoid the throes of labor, and 
have children without suffering ? This is a question 
which science answers in the affirmative. Medical 
art brings the waters of Lethe to the bedside of 
woman in her hour of trial. Of late years chloro- 
form and ether have been employed to lessen or 
annul the pains of childbirth, with the same success 
that has attended their use in surgery. Their ad- 
ministration is never pushed so as to produce com- 
plete unconsciousness, unless some operation is 
necessary, but merely so as to diminish sensibility 
and render the pains endurable. These agents are 
thus given without injury to the child, and without 
retarding the labor or exposing the mother to any 
danger. When properly employed, they induce 
refreshing sleep, revive the drooping nervous sys- 
tem, and expedite the delivery. 

They should never be used in the absence of the 
doctor. Re alone is competent to give them with 
safety. In natural, easy, and short labor, where 
the pains are readily borne, they are not required. 
But in those lingering cases in which the suffering 
is extreme, and, above all, in those instances where 
instruments have to be employed, ether and chloro- 
form have a value beyond all price. 



THE TEACHINGS OF STATISTICS. 237 



MORTALITY OF CHILDBED. 

The number of the pregnancy affects the danger 
to be expected from lying-in. It has been declared 
by excellent authority, that the mortality of first 
labors, and of childbed fever following first labors, 
is about twice the mortality attending all subse- 
quent labors collectively. After the ninth labor 
the mortality increases with the number. A woman 
having a large family, therefore, comes into greater 
and increasing risk as she bears her ninth and suc- 
cessive children. 

The age of the woman also affects the mortality 
accompanying confinement. The age of least mor- 
tality is near twenty-five years. On either side 
of this, mortality increases with the diminution or 
increase of age. The age of the .greatest safety in 
confinement therefore corresponds to the age of 
greatest fecundity. And during the whole of child- 
bearing life, safety in labor is directly as fecundity, 
and vice versa. Hence modern statistics prove the 
correctness of the saying of Aristotle, that ' to the 
* female sex premature wedlock is peculiarly danger- 
ous, since, in consequence of anticipating the de- 
mands of nature, many of them suffer greatly in 
childbirth, and many of them die.' As the period 
from twenty to twenty-five is the least dangerous 
for childbirth, and as first labors are more hazard- 
ous than all others before the ninth, it is important 
that this term of least mortality be chosen for 
entering upon the duties of matrimony. This we 
have already pointed out in speaking of the age of 
nubility. 



238 THE WIFE DURING CONFINEMENT. 

The sex of the child is another circumstance 
affecting the mortality of labor. Professor Simpson 
of Edinburgh has shown that a greater proportion 
of deaths occurs in women who have brought forth 
male children. 

The duration of labor also influences the mortality 
of lying-in. The fatality increases with the length 
of the labor. It must be recollected, however, that 
the duration of labor is only an inconsiderable part 
of the many causes of mortality in childbirth. 

WEIGHT AND LENGTH OF NEW-BORN CHILDREN. 

The average weight of infants of both sexes at 
the time of birth is about seven pounds. The 
average of male children is seven and one-third 
pounds ; of female, six and two-thirds pounds. 
Children which at full term weigh less than five 
pounds are not apt to thrive, and usually die in a 
short time. 

The average length at birth, without regard to 
sex, is about twenty inches, the male being about 
half an inch longer than the female. 

In regard to the relation between the size of the 
child and the age of the mother, the interesting con- 
clusion has been arrived at, that the average weight 
and length of the mature child gradually increases 
with the age of the mother up to the twenty-fifth 
year. Mothers between the ages of twenty-five and 
twenty-nine have the largest children. From the 
thirtieth year they gradually diminish. The first 
child of a woman is of comparatively light weight. 
The first egg of a fowl is smaller than those which 
follow. 



THE LENGTH OF LABOR. 239 

The new-born children in our Western States 
seem to be larger than the statistics show them 
to be in the various States of Europe, and appa- 
rently even than in our Eastern States. In the 
Report on Obstetrics of the Illinois State Medical 
Society for 1868, it is stated that Quincy, 111., pro- 
duced during the year six male children whose aver- 
age weight at birth was thirteen and a quarter 
pounds, the smallest weighing twelve pounds, and 
the largest seventeen and a half, which was born at 
the end of four hours' labor, without instrumental 
or other interference. A recent number of a 
Western medical journal reports the birth at De- 
troit, in February last, of a well-formed male infant 
twenty- four and a-half inches long, weighing six- 
teen pounds. The woman's weight, after labor, is 
stated as only ninety-two pounds. An English 
physician delivered a child by the forceps which 
weighed seventeen pounds twelve ounces, and 
measured twenty-four inches. These are the largest 
well-authenticated new-born infants on record. 



DURATION OF LABOR. 

The length of a natural labor may be said to 
vary between two and eighteen hours. The inter- 
vals between the pains are such, however, that the 
actual duration of suffering, even in the longest 
labor, is comparatively very short. The first con- 
finement is much longer than subsequent ones. 

The sex of the child has some influence on the 
duration of labor. According to Dr. Collins of the 
Lying-in Hospital of Dublin, the average with male 



240 THE WIFE DURING CONFINEMENT. 

births is one hour and four minutes longer than 
with female. The weight of the child also affects 
the time of labor. Children weighing over eight 
pounds average four hours and eight minutes longer 
in birth than those of less than eight pounds 
weight. 

STILL-BIRTHS. 

The statistics of nearly fifty thousand deliveries 
which occurred at the Royal Maternity Charity, 
London, show a percentage of nearly five still-born, 
or one in twenty-seven. 

There are more boys still-born than girls. We 
have already spoken of the fact that male births 
are more tedious, and that a larger number of males 
die in the first few years of life than females. This 
series of misfortunes has been attributed to the 
large size which the male fcetus at birth possesses 
over the female. 

IMPRUDENCE AFTER CHILDBIRTH. 

After the birth of the child at full term, or at 
any other period of pregnancy, the womb, which 
had attained such wonderful proportions in a few 
months, begins to resume its former size. This 
process requires at least six weeks after labor for 
its full accomplishment. Rest is essential during 
this period. A too early return to the ordinary 
active duties of life retards or checks this restoration 
to normal size, and the womb being heavier, ex- 
poses the woman to great danger of uterine dis- 
placements. Nor are these the only risks incurred 
by a too hasty renewal of active movements. The 



THE " GETTING-UP." 24 1 

surface, the substance, and the lining membrane of 
the. womb are all very liable, while this change from 
its increased to its ordinary bulk is occurring, to 
take on inflammation after slight exposure. The 
worst cases of uterine inflammation and ulceration 
are thus caused. A ' bad getting-up,' prolonged 
debility, pain, and excessive discharge, are among 
the least penalties consequent upon imprudence 
after confinement. It is a mistake to suppose that 
hard-working women in the lower walks of life 
attend with impunity to their ordinary duties a 
few days after confinement. Those who suffer 
most from falling of the womb and other displace- 
ments are the poor, who are obliged to get up 
on the ninth day and remain upright, standing or 
walking for many hours with an over-weighted 
womb. Every physician who has practised much 
among the poor, has remarked upon the great 
frequency of diseases of the womb, which is to 
be attributed to the neglect of rest, so common 
among them, after child-birth. If this be true of 
vigorous women accustomed to a hardy life, how 
much more apt to suffer from this cause are the 
delicately nurtured, whose systems are already, 
perhaps, deteriorated, and little able to resist any 
deleterious influences ! 

A mother should remain in bed for at least two 
weeks after the birth of the child, and should not 
return to her household duties under a month ; she 
should also take great pains to protect herself from 
cold, so as to escape the rheumatic affections to 
which at this time she is particularly subject. If 
these directions were generally observed, there would 

Q 



242 THE WIFE DURING CONFINEMENT. 

be less employment for physicians with diseases 
peculiar to women, and fewer invalids in our 
homes. 

TO PRESERVE THE FORM AFTER CHILDBIRTH. 

This is a matter of great anxiety with many 
women ; and it is proper that it should be, for a 
flabby, pendulous abdomen is not only destructive 
to grace of movement and harmony of outline, but 
is a positive inconvenience. 

To avoid it, be careful not to leave the bed too 
early. If the walls of the abdomen are much re- 
laxed, the bed should be kept from two to three 
weeks. Gentle frictions daily with spirits and 
water will give tone to the muscles. But the most 
important point is to wear for several months a 
well-fitting bandage — not a towel pinned around 
the person, but a body-case of strong linen, cut 
bias, setting snugly to the form, but not exerting 
unpleasant pressure. The pattern for this has 
already been given. 



THE MOTHER. 



MATERNAL DUTIES AND PRIVILEGES. 

IT has been well said by Madame Sirey, that 
women who comprehend well their rights and 
duties as mothers of families, certainly cannot com- 
plain of their destiny. If there exists any in- 
equality in the means of pleasure accorded to the 
two sexes, it is in favor of the woman. The mother 
who lives in her children and her grandchildren, 
has the peculiar privilege of not knowing the grief 
of becoming old. 

' So low down in the scale of creation as we can 
go,' says Professor Laycock of Edinburgh, 'wher- 
ever there is a discoverable distinction of sex, we 
find that maternity is the first and most funda- 
mental duty of the female. The male never in a 
single instance, in any organism, whether plant or 
animal, contributes nutrient material.' 

Among the Romans, it was enacted that married 
women who had borne three children, or if freed- 
women, four, had special privileges of their own in 
cases of inheritance, and were exempted from tute- 
lage. Juvenal has recorded the reverence paid in 
Rome to the newly-made mother, and the sign 
by which her house was designated and protected 
from rude intruders, namely, by the suspension of 
wreaths over the door. 

21 Q 2 



244 THE MOTHER. 

At various times, and in different countries, legis- 
lators have made laws discriminating in favor of 
matrons, justly regarding the family as the source 
of the wealth and prosperity of the State. 

Louis XIV. granted, by the edict of 1666, certain 
pensions to parents of ten children, with an increase 
for those who had twelve or more. 

NURSING. 

So soon as the infant is born, it ought to be 
placed at the breast. From this source it should 
receive its only nourishment during the first four or 
six months, and in many cases the first year, of its 
life. The child which the mother has carried for 
nine months and brought with suffering into the 
world, still depends upon her for its existence. At 
the moment of its birth her duties to the infant, 
instead of ceasing, augment in importance. The 
obligation is imposed upon her of nourishing it 
with her own milk, unless there are present physi- 
cal conditions rendering nursing improper, of which 
we are about to speak. It is well known that the 
artificial feeding of infants is a prominent cause of 
mortality in early life. The foundlings of large 
cities furnish the most striking and convincing 
proof of the great advantages of nursing over the 
use of artificially-prepared food. On the continent 
of Europe, in Lyons and Parthenay, where found- 
lings are wet-nursed from the time they are re- 
ceived, x the deaths are 33.7 and 35 per cent. In 
Paris, Rheims, and Aix, where they are wholly 
dry-nursed, their deaths are 50.3, 63.9, and 80 per 
cent. In New York city, the foundlings, number- 



NURSING. 245 

ing several hundred a year, were, until recently, 
dry-nursed, with the fearful and almost incredible 
mortality of nearly one hundred per cent. The 
employment of wet-nurses has produced a much 
more favorable result. Therefore, if for any reason 
the mother cannot nurse her own child, a hired wet- 
nurse should be procured. This brings us to the 
consideration of 

HINDRANCES TO NURSING, AND WHEN IT IS 
IMPROPER. 

Women who have never suckled often experience 
difficulty in nursing, on account of the sunken and 
flat condition of the nipple. We have pointed out 
the causes of this depression, and how by early at- 
tention before the birth of the infant it may be pre- 
vented. If, however, these precautions have been 
neglected, and it is found that the nipple is not 
sufficiently prominent to be grasped by the child's 
mouth, it may be drawn out by a common breast- 
pump, by suction with a tobacco-pipe, by the use of 
the hot-water bottle in the manner described, or by 
the application of an infant a little older. Neither 
the child nor the mother should be constantly 
fretted in such cases by frequent ineffectual attempts 
at nursing. Such unremitting attention and con- 
tinual efforts produce nervousness and loss of sleep, 
and result in a diminution of the quantity of the 
milk. The child should not be put to the breast 
oftener than once in an hour and a half or two 
hours. By the use of the expedients mentioned, 
the whole difficulty will be overcome in a few 
days. 



246 THE MOTHER. 

Delay in applying the child to the breast is a 
common cause of trouble. After it has been fed 
for several days with the spoon or bottle, it will 
often refuse to suck. When nursing is deferred, 
the nipple also becomes tender. For these reasons, 
as well as the others detailed in our directions for 
the care of the new-born infant, the child should 
always, in say from two to three hours after labor, 
be placed at the breast. 

Ulcerated and fissured nipples should be treated 
by the doctor in attendance. As it is highly desir- 
able, and nearly always possible, to avoid them, we 
would again call attention to the manner of doing 
so, indicated in a previous article. Fissured nipples 
sometimes do harm to the infant, by causing it to 
swallow blood, disturbing in this way the digestion. 
But all these local interferences with nursing can 
generally be obviated in the course of a few weeks, 
and rarely entirely prevent the exercise of this 
maternal pleasure and duty. 

But there are certain physical conditions which 
necessitate the employment of a hired wet-nurse, or 
weaning. If the mother belongs to a consumptive 
family, and is herself pale, emaciated, harassed by 
a cough, and exhausted by suckling, wet-nursing is 
eminently improper. A temporary loss of strength 
under other circumstances should not induce a 
mother at once to wean her child ; for it is often 
possible, by the judicious use of tonics, nourishing 
food, and stimulants, to entirely restore the health 
with the child at the breast. It should always be 
recollected, however, that the milk of those in de- 
cidedly infirm health is incapable of properly 



HINDRANCES TO NURSING. 247 

nourishing the child. Professor J. Lewis Smith of 
New York quotes, in his recent work on Diseases 
of Children, several instructive cases which show 
the danger sometimes attending suckling, and 
which may imperatively demand its discontinuance. 
'A very light-complexioned young mother, in very 
good health, and of a good constitution, though 
somewhat delicate, was nursing for the third time, 
and, as regarded the child, successfully. All at 
once this young woman experienced a feeling of 
exhaustion. Her skin became constantly hot ; 
there were cough, oppression, night-sweats ; her 
strength visibly declined, and in less than a fort- 
night she presented the ordinary symptoms of 
consumption. The nursing was immediately aban- 
doned, and from the moment the secretion of milk 
had ceased, all the troubles disappeared.' Again : 
' A woman of forty years of age having lost, one 
after another, several children, all of which she had 
put out to nurse, determined to nurse the last one 
herself. This woman being vigorous and well built, 
was eager for the work, and, filled with devotion 
and spirit, she gave herself up to the nursing of her 
child with a sort of fury. At nine months she still 
nursed him from fifteen to twenty times a day. 
Having become extremely emaciated, she fell all 
at once into a state of weakness, from which 
nothing could raise her, and two days after the 
poor woman died of exhaustion.' 

It does not always follow, that because the 
mother is sick the child should be taken from the 
breast. It is only necessary in those affections 

in which there is great depression of the vital 
21* 



248 THE MOTHER. 

powers, or in which there is danger of communi- 
cating the disease to the child. In the city, where 
artificially- fed infants run great risks, extreme 
caution should be exercised in early weaning. 

Inflammation of either of the breasts necessitates 
the removal of the infant from the affected side, 
and its restriction to the other. As the inflamma- 
tion gets well and the milk reappears, the first of 
it should always be rejected, as it is apt to be thick 
and stringy, after which nursing may be resumed. 

RULES FOR NURSING. 

The new-born child should be nursed about every 
second hour during the day, and not more than 
once or twice at night. Too much ardor may be 
displayed by the young mother in the performance 
of her duties. Not knowing the fact that an infant 
quite as frequently cries from being overfed as from 
want of nourishment, she is apt to give it the breast 
at every cry, day and night. In this manner her 
health is broken down, and she is compelled per- 
haps to wean her child, which, with more prudence 
and knowledge, she might have continued to nurse 
without detriment to herself. It is particularly 
important that the child shall acquire the habit of 
not requiring the breast more than once or twice at 
night. This, with a little perseverance, can readily 
be accomplished, so that the hours for rest at night, 
so much needed by the mother, may not be inter- 
fered with. Indeed, if the mother does not enjoy 
good health, it is better for her not to nurse at all 
at night, but to have the child fed once or twice 
with a little cow's milk. For this purpose, take the 



WHEN AND HOW TO NURSE. 249 

upper third of the milk which has stood for several 
hours and dilute it with water, in the proportion of 
one part of milk to two of water. 

In those cases in which the milk of the mother 
habitually disagrees with the infant, the attention 
of the doctor should at once be called to the cir- 
cumstance. A microscopic examination will reveal 
to the intelligent practitioner the cause of the diffi- 
culty, and suggest the remedy. 

It may be well here to mention — as, judging 
from the practice of many nurses and mothers, it 
seems to be a fact not generally known or attended 
to — that human milk contains all that is required 
for the growth and repair of the various parts of the 
child's body. It should therefore be the sole food 
of early infancy. 

INFLUENCE OF DIET ON THE MOTHER'S MILK. 

Certain articles of food render the milk acid, and 
thus induce colicky pains and bowel complaints in 
the child. Such, therefore, as are found, in each in- 
dividual case, to produce indigestion and an acid 
stomach in the mother, should be carefully avoided 
by her. 

Retention of the milk in the breasts alters its cha- 
racter. The longer it is retained, the weaker and 
more watery it becomes. An acquaintance with 
this fact is of practical importance to every mother ; 
for it follows from it, that the milk is richer the 
oftener it is removed from the breast. Therefore, if 
the digestion of the child is disordered by the milk 
being too rich, as sometimes happens, the remedy 
is to give it the breast less frequently, by which not 



250 THE MOTHER. 

only is less taken, but the quality is also rendered 
poorer. On the contrary, in those instances in 
which the child is badly nourished and the milk is 
insufficient in quantity, it should be applied oftener, 
and. the mitk thus rendered richer. 

The milk which last flows is always the richest. 
Hence, when two children are nursed, the first is the 
worse served. 

INFLUENCE OF PREGNANCY ON THE MILK. 

Menstruation is ordinarily absent, and pregnancy 
therefore impossible, during the whole course of 
nursing, at least during the first nine months. 
Sometimes, however, mothers become unwell at the 
expiration of the sixth or seventh month ; in rare 
instances, within the first five or six weeks after 
confinement. When the monthly sickness makes 
its appearance without any constitutional or local 
disturbance, it is not apt to interfere with the- 
welfare of the infant. When, on the contrary, the 
discharge is profuse, and attended with much pain, 
it may produce colic, vomiting, and diarrhoea in the 
nursling. The disturbance in the system of the 
child ordinarily resulting from pregnancy in the 
mother is such that, as a rule, it should be at once 
weaned so soon as it is certain that pregnancy 
exists. The only exceptions to this rule are those 
cases in the city, during the hot months, in which 
it is impossible either to procure a wet-nurse or to 
take the child to the country to be weaned. In 
cold weather an infant should certainly be weaned, 
if it has attained its fifth or sixth month, and the 
mother has become pregnant. 



CHANGES IN THE MILK. 25 I 

INFLUENCE OF THE MOTHER'S MIND OVER THE 
NURSING CHILD. 

We have spoken, in treating of mothers' marks, 
of the influence of the mother's mind upon her 
unborn offspring. The influence of tire maternal 
mind does not cease with the birth of the child. 
The mother continues during the whole period of 
nursing powerfully to impress, through her milk, 
the babe at her breast. It is well established, that 
mental emotions are capable of changing the quan- 
tity and quality of the milk, and of thus rendering 
it hurtful, and even dangerous, to the infant. 

The secretion of milk may be entirely stopped by 
the action of the nervous system. Fear, excited 
on account of the child which is sick or exposed to 
accident, will check the flow of milk, which will not 
return until the little one is restored in safety to the 
mother's arms. Apprehension felt in regard to a 
drunken husband, has been known to arrest the 
supply of this fluid. On the other hand, the secre- 
tion is often augmented, as every mother knows, by 
the sight of the child, nay, even by the thought of 
him, causing a sudden rush of blood to the breast 
known to nurses as the draught. Indeed a strong 
desire to furnish milk, together with the applica- 
tion of the child to the breast, has been effectual in 
bringing about its secretion in young girls, old 
women, and even men. 

Sir Astley Cooper states that ' those passions 
which are generally sources of pleasure, and which 
when moderately indulged are conducive to health, 
will, when carried to excess, alter, and even entirely 
check, the secretion of milk.' 



252 THE MOTHER. 

But the fact which it is most important to know 
is, that nervous agitation may so alter the quality 
of the milk as to make it poisonous. A fretful 
temper, fits of anger, grief, anxiety of mind, fear, 
and sudden terror, not only lessen the quantity of 
the milk, but render it thin and unhealthful, in- 
ducing disturbances of the child's bowels, diarrhoea, 
griping, and fever. Intense mental emotion may 
even so alter the milk as to cause the death of the 
child. A physician states, in the Lancet, that, 
having removed a small tumour from behind the 
ear of a mother, all went on well until she fell into 
a violent passion. The child being suckled soon 
afterwards, it died in convulsions. Professor Car- 
penter records in his Physiology two other fatal 
instances : in one, the infant put to the breast im- 
mediately after the receipt of distressing news by 
the mother, died in her arms in the presence of 
the messenger of. the ill-tidings ; in the other, the 
infant was seized with convulsions on the right 
side and paralysis on the left, on sucking directly 
after the mother had met with an agitating occur- 
rence. Another case of similar character may be 
mentioned. A woman while nursing became vio- 
lently excited on account of a loss she had just met 
with from a theft. She gave her child the breast 
while in an intense passion. The child first re- 
fused, but ultimately took it,' when severe vomiting 
occurred. In the course of some hours the child 
took the other breast, was attacked at once with 
violent convulsions, and died in spite of all that 
could be done for it. 

The following cases are related by Professor Car- 



* EFFECT OF FEAR ON THE MILK. 253 

penter as occurring within his own knowledge. 
They are valuable as a warning to nursing mothers 
to avoid all exciting or depressing passions. A 
mother of several healthy children, of whom the 
youngest was a vigorous infant a few months old, 
heard of the death from convulsions of the infant 
child of an intimate friend at a distance, whose 
family had increased in the same manner as her 
own. The unfortunate circumstance made a strong 
impression on her^ mind, and being alone with her 
babe, separated from the rest of her family, she 
dwelt upon it more than she otherwise would have 
done. With her mind thus occupied, one morning, 
shortly after nursing her infant, she laid it in its 
cradle, asleep and apparently in perfect health. 
Her attention was soon attracted to it by a noise. 
On going to the cradle she found it in a convulsion, 
which lasted only a few moments, and left it dead. 
In the other case, the mother had lost several chil- 
dren in early infancy, from fits. One infant alone 
survived the usually fatal period. While nursing, 
him, one morning she dwelt strongly upon the fear 
of losing him also, although he appeared to be a 
very healthy child. The infant was transferred to 
the arms of the nurse. While the nurse was en- 
deavouring to cheer the mother by calling her 
attention to the thriving appearance of her child, 
he was seized with a convulsion, and died almost 
instantly in her arms. Under similar circumstances, 
a child should not be nursed by its mother, but by 
one who has reared healthy children of her own and 
has a tranquil mind. 

An interesting illustration of the powerful seda- 



254 THE MOTHER. 

tive action of the mother's milk — changed in con- 
sequence of great mental distress — upon the 
impressible nervous system of the infant, is fur- 
nished by a German physician. * A carpenter fell 
into a quarrel with a soldier billeted in his house, 
and was set upon by the latter with his drawn 
sword. The wife of the carpenter at first trembled 
from fear and terror, and then suddenly threw 
herself furiously between the combatants, wrested 
the sword from the soldier's hand, broke it in 
pieces, and threw it away. During the tumult, 
some neighbors came in and separated the men. 
While in this state of strong excitement, the 
mother took up her child from the cradle, where 
it lay playing and in the most perfect health, never 
having had a moment's illness. She gave it the 
breast, and in so doing sealed its fate. In a few- 
minutes the infant left off sucking, became restless, 
panted, and sank dead upon its mother's bosom. 
The physician, who was instantly called in, found 
the child lying in the cradle as if asleep, and with 
its features undisturbed ; but all his resources were 
fruitless. It was irrevocably gone.' 

Professor William A. Hammond of New York 
mentions, in a recent number of the Journal of 
Psychological Medicine, several instances, from his 
own practice, of affections in the child caused by 
the mother's milk. ' A soldier's wife, whilst nurs- 
ing her child, was very much terrified by a sudden 
thunderstorm, during which the house where she 
was then quartered was struck by lightning. The 
infant, which had always been in excellent health, 
was immediately attacked with vomiting and con- 



EFFECT OF ANGER ON THE MILK. 2$$ 

vulsions, from which it recovered with difficulty.' 
* A lady, three weeks after delivery, was attacked 
with puerperal insanity. She nursed her child but 
once after the accession of the disease, and in two 
hours subsequently it was affected with general 
convulsions, from which it died during the night. 
Previous to this event it had been in robust health.' 

Again, Dr. Seguin of New York relates, in his 
work on Idiocy, a number of cases of loss of mind 
produced by the altered state of the mother's milk. 
' Mrs. B. came out from a ball-room, gave the 
breast to her baby, three months old : he was taken 
with spasms two hours after, and since is a con- 
firmed idiot and epileptic.' 

' In a moment of great anxiety Mrs. C. jumped 
into a carriage with her suckling, a girl of fifteen 
months, so far very intelligent and attractive. The 
child took the breast only once in a journey of 
twenty miles, but before arriving at destination she 
vomited several times, with no interruption but that 
of stupor, and after an acute fever the little girl 
settled down into the condition of a cripple and 
idiot.' 

The celebrated physician Boerhaave mentions 
the milk of an angry nurse as among the causes of 
epilepsy. 

These facts show the importance of a placid 
mind and cheerful temper in the mother while 
nursing. 

POSITION OF THE MOTHER WHILE NURSING. 

The habit of nursing a child while sitting up in bed 

or half reclining upon a lounge is a wrong one. Such 
22 



256 THE MOTHER. 

a position is injurious to the breasts, hurtful to the 
woman's figure, and apt to cause backache. When 
in bed, the mother ought always to be recumbent 
while the child is at the breast, held upon the arm 
of the side upon which she lies. When out of bed, 
she should sit upright while nursing. 

QUANTITY OF MILK REQUIRED BY THE INFANT. 

The amount of milk furnished every day by a 
healthy woman has been estimated at from a quart 
to three pints. An infant one or two months of age 
takes about two wine-glassfuls, or three ounces, 
every meal ; that is, as it sucks every two hours, 
excepting when asleep, about five half-pints during 
the twenty-four hours. When it attains the age of 
three months, it thrives well on five meals a day ; 
the quantity taken at each meal then, the stomach 
being more capacious, amounting to about half a 
pint. A child above three months of age ordinarily 
requires three pints daily. 

A healthy mother is fully capable of furnishing 
this quantity of milk per day, and of affording the 
child all the nourishment it needs until four or six 
months after birth. 

The quantity of the mother's milk varies accord- 
ing to many circumstances. It is most abundant 
and also most nutritious in nursing women between 
the ages of fifteen and thirty ; least so, in those 
from thirty-five to forty. There is likewise a great 
difference in different women in this respect ; and 
in the same woman varying conditions of health 
influence the amount of milk secreted. 



QUALITIES OF A NURSE. 2$ 7 

THE QUALITIES OF A GOOD NURSING-MOTHER 

are well described by Professor J. Lewis Smith. 
' The best wet-nurses are usually robust, without 
being corpulent. Their appetite is good, and their 
breasts are distended, from the number and large 
size of the blood-vessels and milk-ducts. There is 
but a moderate amount of fat around the gland, 
and tortuous veins are observed passing over it. 
Such nurses do not experience a feeling of ex- 
haustion, and do not suffer from lactation. The 
nutriment which they consume is equally expended 
on their own sustenance and the supply of milk. 
There are other good wet-nurses who have the 
physical condition described, but whose breasts 
are small. Still the infant continues to suck till it 
is satisfied, and it thrives. The milk is of good 
quality, and it appears to be secreted mainly during 
the time of suckling. Other mothers evidently 
decline in health during the time of nursing. They 
furnish milk of good quality and in abundance, and 
their infants thrive ; but it is at their own expense. 
They themselves say, and with truth, that what 
they eat goes to milk. They become thinner and 
paler, are perhaps troubled with palpitation, and 
are easily exhausted. They often find it necessary 
to wean before the end of the usual period of 
lactation. There is another class whose health is 
habitually poor, but who furnish the usual quantity 
of milk without the exhaustion experienced by the 
class just described. The milk of these women is 
of poor quality. It is abundant, but watery. Their 
infants are pallid, having soft and flabby fibre.' 



258 THE MOTHER. 

OVER-ABUNDANCE OF MILK. 

An excessive amount of milk often distends the 
breasts of those women who are prone to have long 
and profuse monthly sickness. It is also apt to 
occur in those subject to bleeding piles. It may 
be produced by any excitement of the womb or 
ovaries, and by over-nursing. In these cases there 
is usually a constant oozing away and consequent 
loss of milk. The mother is troubled by this over- 
flow, because it keeps her clothing wet ; and the 
child suffers because of the unnutritious, watery 
character of the milk under such circumstances. 

This over-abundant supply may be moderated 
and the quality improved by diminishing the quan- 
tity of drink, and by the use of preparations of 
iron. Fifteen drops of the muriatic tincture of iron, 
taken three times a day in a little sweetened water, 
through a glass tube, will be useful. It will lessen 
the amount of the milk, and make it richer. So 
soon as these objects are accomplished, the medi- 
cine should be discontinued ; as, if taken too long, 
it may so much diminish the milk as to necessitate 
weaning. The application of a cloth, wrung out in 
cold water, around the nipples is also of value. It 
is to be removed so soon as it becomes warm, and 
reapplied. In those cases in which the trouble 
seems to be not so much an over-supply as an 
inability to retain the milk, the administration of 
tonics addressed to the nervous system, and the 
local use of astringents and of collodion around the 
nipples, will overcome the difficulty ; but these 
remedies can only be employed successfully by the 



WHEN THE MILK IS SCANTY. 259 

physician. And to him alone should be en- 
trusted the use of those medicines which directly 
diminish the amount of milk secreted within the 
breasts. The expedients we have mentioned are 
the only ones which can be safely employed by the 
mother herself in this annoying affection. 

SCANTINESS OF MILK. 

Some mothers have habitually an insufficiency 
of milk. They are most numerous in large cities, 
and among working women whose daily occupa- 
tions require a separation from the infant. Indi- 
gestion, and the want of a proper amount of 
nourishing food, cause a diminution in the quantity 
of milk. So also do overfeeding and gormandizing. 
Age lessens the secretion of milk, as has been 
already mentioned. Those who first bear children 
late in life, have less milk for them than they who 
begin earlier. In some cases want of milk in the 
breasts seems to be due to its reabsorption. In 
such instances it may make its appearance at dis- 
tant parts. Thus, a case has been recorded of the 
coughing up of milk following sudden arrest of the 
secretion, and others in which it presented itself as 
an exudation in the groins. 

In the treatment of a scanty formation of milk, 
one of the best measures which can be resorted 
to is the frequent application of the child to 
the breast. In addition, the flow may be in- 
creased by milking the breasts by means of the 
thumb and finger, suction through a tobacco- 
pipe, or the breast-pump, or by the use of another 
infant. Friction of the breasts, and forcible draw- 
22* R 2 



260 THE MOTHER. 

ing upon the. nipples, will make them sore, and so 
irritate them as to defeat the object in view. A 
change of scene, fresh air, and out-door exercise, 
attention to personal cleanliness, and the improve- 
ment of the general health, all increase the quan- 
tity, and produce a favourable effect upon the 
quality, of the milk. A sojourn at the sea-side 
often promotes an abundant secretion of milk. 
The diet should be regulated by the condition of 
the constitution. By those who are weak and pale, 
a large proportion of meat is required. On the 
contrary, those who are full-blooded and corpulent 
should restrict the amount of their animal food, 
and take more exercise in the open air. Oatmeal 
gruel enjoys a reputation for increasing the flow of 
milk. A basin of it sometimes produces an imme- 
diate effect. The same is true of cow's milk. 
Porter or ale once or twice a day, in those with 
reduced systems and impaired digestion and appe- 
tite, will be found useful. Anise, fennel, and 
caraway-seeds, given in soup, act sometimes as 
stimulants upon the secretion of milk. The appli- 
cation of a poultice made from the pulverized leaves 
of the castor-oil plant is a most efficient remedy 
when milk fails to make its appearance in the 
breast in sufficient quantity after confinement. 

WET-NURSING BY VIRGINS, AGED WOMEN, 

AND MEN. 

As a rule, the secretion of milk is limited to one 
sex, and in that is confined to a short period after 
childbirth. But there are many cases on record of 
the flowing of milk in women not recently mothers, 



MEN AS WET-NURSES. 26 1 

in girls before the age of puberty, in aged women, 
and even in individuals of the male sex. In such 
instances, the secretion is induced by the combined 
influence, acting through the nervous system, of a 
strong desire for its occurrence, of a fixed attention 
towards the mammary glands, and of suction from 
the nipples. 

Travellers among savage nations report many 
examples of such unnatural nursing. Dr. Living- 
stone says he has frequently seen in Africa a 
grandchild suckled by a grandmother. Dr. Wm. 
A. Gillespie, of Virginia records, in the Boston 
Medical and Surgical Journal, the case of a widow, 
aged about sixty, whose daughter having died, 
leaving a child two months old, took the child and 
tried to raise it by feeding. The child's bowels 
became deranged, and being unable to procure a 
nurse, and her breasts being large and full, he 
advised her to apply the child, in hopes milk 
would come. She followed his advice perse- 
veringly, and, to her astonishment, a plentiful 
secretion of milk was the result, with which she 
nourished the child, which afterwards became 
strong and healthy. A similar instance, still more 
remarkable, is recorded of a woman at seventy 
years, who twenty years wet-nursed a grandchild 
after her last confinement. 

Cases of nursing in the opposite extreme of life 
are also well authenticated. The distinguished 
French physician Baudelocque has related that of 
a deaf and dumb girl, eight years old, who, by 
the repeated application to her breast of a young 
infant, which her mother was suckling, had suffi- 



262 THE MOTHER. 

cient milk to nourish the child for a month, while 
the mother was unable to nurse it on account of 
sore nipples. The little girl was shown to the 
Royal Academy of Surgery on the 16th of 
February, 1783. The quantity of milk was such, 
that by simply pressing the breast it was made to 
flow out in the presence of the Academy, and on 
the same day, at the house of Baudelocque, before 
a large class of pupils. Again, an interesting case 
is known of a young woman, who, in consequence 
of the habit of applying the infant of her mistress 
to her breast in order to quiet it, caused a free 
secretion of milk. In the Cape de Verde Islands, 
it is stated that virgins, old women, and even men, 
are frequently employed as wet-nurses. Hum- 
boldt speaks of a man, thirty-two years old, who 
gave the breast to his child for five months. 
Captain Franklin saw a similar case in the Arctic 
regions. Professor Hall presented to his class in 
Baltimore a negro, fifty-five years old, who had 
been the wet-nurse of all the children of his 
mistress. 

Instances of powers of prolonged nursing in 
mothers are not uncommon. Indeed it is the habit 
among some nations to suckle children until 
they are three or four years of age, even though 
another pregnancy may intervene, so that imme- 
diately one child is succeeded at the breast by 
another. In those who have thus unnaturally ex- 
cited the mammary glands, an irrepressible flow 
sometimes continues after the demand for it has 
ceased. Dr. Green published, some years ago, in 
the New York Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 



HYGIENIC RULES FOR THE NURSING-MOTHER. 263 

the case of a woman, aged forty-seven, the mother 
of five children, who had had an abundant supply of 
milk for twenty-seven years consecutively. A period 
of exactly four years and a half occurred between 
each birth, and the children were permitted to 
take the breast until they were running about at 
play. At the time when Dr. G. wrote, she had 
been nine years a widow, and was obliged to have 
her breasts drawn daily, the secretion of milk being 
so copious. When, therefore, it is desirable, on 
account of the feebleness of the child, to protract 
the period of nursing, a wet-nurse should relieve 
the mother at the end of twelve or fifteen months. 

RULES FOR CARE OF HEALTH WHILE NURSING. 
From what we have previously said of the influ- 
ence of the nervous system over the quantity and 
quality of the milk, and the instances we have 
adduced of the danger to the infant of all violent 
passions — such as anger, terror, anxiety, and grief 
— oh the part of the mother, it will be apparent 
that it is of the greatest moment, during the whole 
course of nursing, to maintain a tranquil state of 
mind. Pleasing and peaceful emotions favor the 
normal secretion of milk, and go far towards se- 
curing the health of the child. When strongly 
affected by any powerful feelings, mothers should 
not give the breast, but should wait until they have 
calmed down to their usual tenor of temper. A 
case is related of a woman who was always excited 
by a highly electrical state of the atmosphere, and 
particularly during stormy weather. If when thus 
influenced she nursed her child he was sure to fall 



264 THE MOTHER. 

into convulsions ; while, if she delayed doing so 
until this nervous excitement had passed, no un- 
pleasant symptoms occurred. But we have already 
dwelt at length upon this subject in speaking of the 
influence of the mind of the mother over the child 
at her breast, and need not therefore recur to it. The 
food while nursing must be nutritious and varied, 
though simple and unstimulating ; and should con- 
sist both of meat and vegetables, soups, fish, flesh, 
and fowl, either in combination or succession. 
When the digestion requires stimulation and aid, 
a glass of mild ale twice a day will be useful. 
Wines, brandy, and whisky should not be taken 
without the advice of a physician. Moderate ex- 
ercise in the open air and regular habits are neces- 
sary. A defective or excessive diet, fatigue, loss 
of rest at night, and irregularities and excesses of 
all kinds are unfavorable to mother and child. The 
proper methods of combating a tendency to over- 
abundance or to scantiness of milk have been 
alluded to. Medicines, unless prescribed by the 
medical attendant, should rarely or never be taken 
during this period, as many of them enter the milk 
and may thus affect the child. 

RELATIONS OF HUSBAND AND WIFE DURING 
NURSING. 

After a natural and healthful confinement, the 
nurse usually remains with the mother for a period 
of four weeks. During the whole of this time the 
husband should occupy a separate apartment, and, 
according to some physicians, this separation 
should be protracted during the entire period of 



OVER-NURSING. 26$ 

nursing. But this is unusual, and in most cases 
unnecessary. Only those women who are warned 
by the recurrence of their monthly illness that 
they are liable to another pregnancy immediately, 
should insist on such an ascetic rule as this. 

Unquestionably the quality of the milk is much 
deteriorated by a conception ; and therefore, both 
in the interest of the mother and child, the husband 
should renounce his usual privileges at such times. 

Most women do not have their periodical illness, 
and consequently are not liable to a second preg- 
nancy, before seven months have elapsed after 
childbirth. There are, however, numerous excep- 
tions to this rule, and it is impossible to foretell 
who will and who will not be the exception. 

Moreover, as any excitement of the passions 
alters to some extent the secretion of the breasts, 
often to the injury of the child, it is every way 
advisable that great temperance be exercised in 
all cases in the marital relations at these epochs. 

SIGNS OF OVER-NURSING. 
The symptoms of over-nursing may be enu- 
merated as follows : — Aching pain in the back ; 
often, pain across the shoulders, and on the top 
of the head or forehead ; marked paleness of the 
face ; inability to sleep ; frightful dreams when 
sleep does come ; great debility ; extreme de- 
pression of the spirits ; disorders of the sight, and 
mental disturbances, which take on the form of 
melancholia, the delusions relating mostly to sub- 
jects of a religious character, to the effect that the 
unpardonable sin has been committed, and the 



266 THE MOTHER. 

like. The headache is situated on the top of the 
head, and this spot may be noticed to* be per- 
ceptibly hotter to the touch than other parts of 
the head. These symptoms indicate that the pro- 
cess of nursing is making too great a drain upon 
the system. 

A woman in ordinary health will generally be 
able to suckle her child for twelve months without 
experiencing any bad effects. When the child is 
kept at the breast much beyond this time, most 
mothers render themselves liable to the injurious 
consequences we have mentioned. Some, indeed, 
cannot furnish the child all the nourishment it 
needs longer than three or four months, without 
detriment to themselves. In such cases, by feeding 
the child two or three times a day, the mother 
may be relieved of the burden of its entire support, 
and may thus be enabled to continue nursing. 
The proper food for infants, under these circum- 
stances, will be shortly mentioned. The prostrating 
effects of nursing upon the body and mind of the 
mother are in some, though comparatively rare, 
instances so marked, as to render it altogether im- 
proper from the commencement. 

The treatment of the condition of system de- 
scribed as resulting from over-nursing is, if it can- 
not be remedied by partially feeding the infant 
and the use of tonics, to remove the child from the 
breast altogether, and either procure a wet-nurse 
for it, or wean it. The wet-nurse is greatly to be 
preferred ; and the preference is the stronger, the 
younger the child. We have already alluded to 
the great difficulty of rearing children from birth 



MOTHERS WHO CANNOT NURSE. 267 

by the hand. But after the infant has attained 
the age oT several months, the danger of artificial 
feeding is much lessened, provided that the wean- 
ing does not take place during hot weather. This 
brings us to the consideration of the regimen of 
the mother who cannot nurse her own child, of the 
rules for the selection of a wet-nurse, of the direc- 
tions for bringing up by hand, and of the proper 
method of weaning. These subjects we will now 
take up in the order mentioned. 

DIRECTIONS FOR MOTHERS WHO CANNOT NURSE 
THEIR OWN CHILDREN. 

There are many reasons why a mother should, 
if possible, nurse her own child. ' One of the 
principal is,' says the distinguished Dr. Tilt, ' that 
as nursing, generally speaking, prevents concep- 
tion up to the tenth month, so it prevents the 
ruin of the mother's constitution by the too rapid 
bringing forth of children, and, we might even add, 
prevents a deterioration of the race, by the imper- 
fect bringing up of this too-fast-got family.' 

The same author appropriately adds : •' But 

while advocating maternal nursing, we must not 

forget that woman is not now the Eve of a primeval 

world ; that human nature, wherever it is now met, 

in barbarous tribes or in civilised communities, is 

frequently so deteriorated, so diseased or prone to 

disease, that, by nursing, a mother may sometimes 

undermine her own frail constitution for the sake 

of giving an imperfect sustenance, and perhaps a 

poisonous heritage, to her babe.' 

Some mothers, however anxiously they may 
23 



268 THE MOTHER. 

wish to do so, cannot nurse their children. They 
are shut out from this charming and 'tender ex- 
perience in the life of a woman. The milk that 
comes is not sufficient, and quickly disappears. 
Because of the influence of the mind of the mother 
over the child at her breast, to which we have 
before called attention, women who are very hys- 
terical and nervous, subject to violent perturbations 
of the mind, should not, particularly if there be 
any family tendency to insanity, expose the child 
to the mischievous effects latent in their milk. So, 
also, the presence of certain diseases forbids wet- 
nursing - . Thus it is ordinarily prohibited by con- 
sumption, scrofula, skin affections of long standing, 
and cancer. In consumption, all efforts to suckle 
are frequently equally fatal to the mother and 
child. Even a strong hereditary predisposition to 
this disease may render it advisable, in the opinion 
of the family physician, — who should always be 
consulted in such a case, — to counteract the family 
taint by giving the milk of the healthiest nurse 
that can be procured. The condition of the nipples 
and of the breast may not permit of nursing. We 
have pointed out how best to guard against such 
an occurrence, in treating of the care of the nipples 
during pregnancy. 

She who is to be debarred from nursing her own 
child should take care that it is not allowed to 
approach her breasts, as sometimes the mental and 
physical excitement caused by such an approach is 
of an injurious and lasting character. 

Ordinarily, if this direction be followed out, the 
mother will have little trouble in regard to herself. 



THE WET-NURSE. 269 

Under such circumstances, the chief danger is to 
the'child. Hence the importance of knowing 

HOW TO SELECT A WET-NURSE. 

The choosing of a wet-nurse is a matter of great 
moment and responsibility. She should not be 
over thirty years of age, and should, if possible, be 
one who has previously suckled and had charge of 
children. Her own infant should be under the age of 
six months, for when above that age the milk some- 
times disagrees with her new-born charge. One who 
has had several children should be preferred, because 
her milk is richer than after the first confinement. 

The doctor should always examine carefully into 
the condition of the nurse's health, and into the 
quality and quantity of her milk. Various diseases 
and taints of the system are so hidden, while yet 
communicable to the child, that the knowledge and 
skill of a professional expert are required for their 
detection, and the protection of the nursling. In 
testing the quality of the milk, the experienced 
physician allows a little to rest on his finger nail, 
and by its examination readily decides as to its 
richness and fitness to nourish the little applicant 
for food. It is not necessary that the breasts 
should be large, as those of moderate size often 
furnish a sufficient amount of milk. But it is im- 
portant that the nipples should be well developed. 
Those wet-nurses should be preferred in whom 
large blood-vessels are seen prominently passing in 
blue lines over the surface of the breasts. The 
possession of a vigorous, healthful infant is a good 
recommendation for a nurse, but care should be 



270 THE MOTHER. 

taken to ascertain that it is her own, as nurses 
have been known to borrow for such an occasion, 
and so obtain credit not justly their due. 

The moral and mental as well as physical cha- 
racteristics should be considered. Temperance and 
cleanliness are indispensable in a wet-nurse, and 
the want of either should be an imperative reason 
for rejection. Equanimity of temper; cheerfulness, 
and an open, frank, affectionate disposition, are of 
course greatly to be desired. 

If the nurse becomes ' unwell,' shall the child be 
taken from her ? Should the monthly sickness re- 
appear early, and both nurse and child be in good 
health, suckling may be continued. But when the 
return happens about the ninth or tenth month, the 
child should be weaned or the nurse changed. 
There is no physiological reason for preventing the 
nurse from living matrimonially ; but if pregnancy 
occurs, the child should be taken from her. 

The same rules that we have laid down for the 
mother for the care of her health while nursing, are 
of course applicable to the hired wet-nurse, and 
should be insisted upon and enforced. 

Changing a nurse. — When it becomes necessary 
to change a nurse, for any of the reasons above 
mentioned, it may be done without injury to the 
child. For fear of the effect of the unwelcome 
tidings upon the mind of the nurse, and the possible 
influence upon the milk, she should not be informed 
of the projected change until a successor has been 
secured to take her place at once. In choosing the 
second nurse, the same precautions should be had 
as in the selection of the first. 



THE CHILD. 



THE CARE OF INFANCY, 

By infancy we mean that portion of the life of 
the child between birth and the completion of the 
teething — about two and a half years. The care 
of this period of human life is entrusted to the 
mother. It forms an important era in the physical 
life of woman. Its discussion is therefore germane 
to our subject. In order that the young mother 
may fully appreciate the responsibilities of her 
position, she should know something of the liability 
of infants to sickness and death. 

Out of one thousand children born, one hundred 
and fifty die within the first year, and one hundred 
and thirteen during the next four years. Thus two 
hundred and sixty-three, or more than one-fourtJi, 
die within five years after birth. Between the ages 
of five and ten, thirty-five die. During the next 
five years eighteen more are recorded on the death- 
list. Hence, at fifteen years of age only six hun- 
dred and eighty-five remain out of the one thousand 
born. When these figures are considered, and the 
additional fact that out of those who survive very 
many bear permanent marks of imperfect nourish- 
ment or of actual disease, the consequence of 
23* 



272 THE CHILD. 

maladies contracted in early life, the importance of 
our present inquiry — the care of infancy — will be 
apparent to all mothers. 

The younger the infant, the greater the danger 
of death. One-tenth of all children born die within 
the first month after birth, and four times as many 
as during the second month. 

The mortality is much larger in cities than in the 
country. In Dublin, during 1867, very nearly one- 
third of all the persons who died were under five 
years of age. In the same year forty-three per 
cent, of those who died in the eight principal towns 
of Scotland were children below the age of five. 
In Philadelphia, during the same year, forty-five 
per cent, of all the deaths were of children under 
five years of age. In New York fifty-three per 
cent, of the total number of deaths occur under the 
age of five years, and twenty-six per cent, under 
the age of one year. 

The danger of death lessens as the period of 
puberty approaches. Yet, even in the last years of 
childhood there is a greater liability to disease and 
a larger proportionate loss of life than during youth 
or middle age. 

CAUSES OF INFANT MORTALITY. 

What are the causes of this startling mortality of 
infant life ? Why does one child out of ten die in 
the first month, and only three out of four live to 
be five years old ? And what are the means of 
prevention ? 

Some of the causes which are active in producing 
this mortality among the little ones cannot be sue- 



INFANT MORTALITY. 273 

cessfully opposed after birth. Such, for instance, 
are imperfect and vicious developments of internal 
organs existing when born. These malformations 
often result from inflammation while in the womb, 
excited by some taint of the mother's blood, or by 
some agitation of her nervous system. Means of 
prevention in those cases are therefore to be" 
directed to the mother, in the manner indicated in 
treating of pregnancy. But other causes of death 
begin to act only after birth, and are to a greater 
or less extent avoidable. These are largely trace- 
able to ignorance, negligence, and vice. 

One cause of death to which infants are peculiarly 
liable, and which alone is said to have destroyed 
forty thousand children in England between the 
years 1686 and 1799, is being overlain by the 
parents. For this reason, some physicians caution 
the mother against having the infant in bed with 
her while she sleeps. 

The frightful waste of life caused by bringing 
children up by hand has been mentioned, and the 
importance of avoiding it when possible. 

The natural feebleness of the system of infants 
is the reason why they succumb so easily to any 
malady. Deaths from any given disease are more 
numerous among infants than children, and among 
children than adults. Hence the importance of 
timely corrective measures in infantile affections ; 
hence, also, the need that mothers should know 
and practise the means best adapted to preserve 
the health of their frail charges. 

These means we shall proceed to give in detail, 
commencing with directions for 



274 THE CHILD. 



BRINGING UP BY HAND. 

We have already alluded to the great danger to 
the child, particularly in a city, that is artificially 
fed from birth. But as there are many mothers 
who are unable, on account of the expense, to have 
a wet-nurse for the child they cannot suckle them- 
selves, we will give such directions in regard to the 
diet as are best calculated to lessen the risk in- 
variably incurred under such circumstances. 

The child's food should be of the best quality, 
and prepared with the most scrupulous attention to 
cleanliness. The milk of the cow is preferable to 
that of the ass or of the goat, the former of which 
it is difficult to procure, and the latter having a 
disagreeable odour. For a child under three months 
of age, cow's milk should be used as the only food. 
It should be fresh, and if possible from one cow. 
When of the ordinary richness, it is to be diluted 
with an equal quantity of water or thin barley- 
water. If, however, the first milking can be ob- 
tained, which is more watery, and bears a closer 
resemblance in its chemical composition to human 
milk, but little dilution will be required. If green 
and acrid stools make their appearance, accom- 
panied by emaciation and vomiting, the milk must 
be more diluted, and given less frequently. If the 
symptoms of indigestion do not yield, milk con- 
taining an excess of cream should be used. To 
procure it, allow fresh milk to stand for two or 
three hours, and remove the upper third, to which 
add two or three parts of warm water or barley- 



BRINGING IIP BY HAND. 2J$ 

water, after having dissolved in it a little sugar of 
milk. Should this food also disagree, any of the 
preparations we are about to mention may be 
prepared and tried. 

Professor Falkland recommends the following 
method of preparing milk for infants, as affording 
a product more nearly like 'the natural secretion : — 
1 One third of a pint of pure milk is allowed to 
stand until the cream has risen. The latter is 
removed, and to the blue milk thus obtained about 
a square inch of rennet is to be added, and the 
milk-vessel placed in warm water. In about five 
minutes the curd will have separated, and the 
rennet, which may again be repeatedly used, being 
removed, the whey is carefully poured off, and 
immediately heated to boiling, to prevent it be- 
coming sour. A further quantity of curd separates, 
and must be removed by straining through calico. 
In one-quarter of a pint of this hot whey three- 
eighths of an ounce of milk sugar are to be 
dissolved ; and this solution, along with the cream 
removed from the one-third of a pint of milk, must 
be added to half a pint of new milk. This will 
constitute the food for an infant from five to eight 
months old for twelve hours ; or, more correctly 
speaking, it will be one-half of the quantity required 
for twenty-four hours. It is absolutely necessary 
that a fresh quantity should be prepared every 
twelve hours; and it is scarcely necessary to' add, 
that the strictest cleanliness in all the vessels used 
is indispensable.' 

Dr. J. Forsyth Meigs directs the following article 
of diet as one which he has found to agree better 

S 2 



276 THE CHILD. 

with the digestive system of the infant than any 
other kind of food : — 'A scruple of gelatine (or a 
piece two inches square of the flat cake in which it 
is sold) is soaked for a short time in cold water, 
and then boiled in half a pint of water, until it 
dissolves — about ten or fifteen minutes. To this is 
added, with constant stirring, and just at the termi- 
nation of the boiling, the milk and arrowroot, the 
latter being previously mixed into a paste with a 
little cold water. After the addition pf the milk 
and arrowroot, and just before the removal from 
the fire, the cream is poured in, and a moderate 
quantity of loaf sugar added. The proportions of 
milk, cream, and arrowroot must depend on the 
age and digestive powers of the child. For a 
healthy infant, within the month, I usually direct 
from three to four ounces of milk, half an ounce to 
an ounce of cream, and a tea-spoonful of arrowroot 
to half a pint of water. For older children, the 
quantity of milk and cream should be gradually 
increased to a half or two-thirds milk, and from 
one to two ounces of cream. I seldom increase the 
quantity of gelatine or arrowroot.' . 

The egg is a valuable article of food for infants 
and young children, especially in conditions of 
debility. It should be given nearly raw, and is best 
prepared by placing it in boiling water for two 
minutes. It is then easily digested. 

Beef-tea, prepared in the manner described on 
page 234, is highly nutritious and useful as a food 
for infants : if it produce a laxative effect, it should 
be discontinued. When the child shows signs of 
weakness or of a scrofulous condition, its nutrition 



BRINGING UP BY HAND. 2^] 

will be improved by mingling with its food a small 
piece of butter or mutton suet. 

During the first four or five months the food 
should be thin, and taken through a teat, thus pre- 
venting the stuffing of the infant. 

On attaining the age of twelve or fifteen months, 
infants are usually able to digest ordinary whole- 
some solid food, neatly and well cooked, when 
mashed or cut into fine pieces. 

An article of food employed for the diarrhoea of 
infants is prepared as follows : — * A pound of dry 
wheat flour of the best quality is packed snugly in 
a bag and boiled three or four hours. When it is 
taken from the bag it is hard, resembling a piece of 
chalk, with the exception of the exterior, which is 
wet, and should be removed. The flour grated from 
the mass should be used the same as arrowroot or 
rice.' 

Infants nourished by prepared food thrive well 
enough during cool weather, but during the warm 
months of the year they are exceedingly liable to 
bowel complaint, of which large numbers of the 
spoon-fed infants of cities die each summer season. 
Hence the importance of taking them into the 
country ; and keeping them there until the return 
of cool weather lessens the danger of city life. 

WEANING. 

This should take place when the child is about 
twelve months of age — sometimes a few months 
earlier, often a few later. If the mother's health 
be good, and her milk abundant, it may be deferred 
until the canine teeth appear — between the fifteenth 



278 THE CHILD. 

and twentieth month. The child will then have 
sixteen teeth with which it can properly masticate 
soft solid food. 

Time of the year for. — The infant should not be 
taken from the breast during or immediately pre- 
ceding warm weather. If the mother, either on 
account of sickness or failure in her breast-milk, is 
obliged during the summer to give up nursing, she 
should at once procure a wet-nurse. If she cannot, 
the child must be sent into the country. To wean 
an infant in the city in hot weather, is to expose it 
to almost certain death. 

Proper method. — The process of weaning should 
be a very slow one. No definite day should be 
fixed for it. Little by little, from week to week, 
the amount of spoon-food is to be increased and 
the nursing lessened — being first given up at night. 
The breast should never be suddenly denied to a 
child unaccustomed to artificial food, but be dis- 
placed by degrees, by the bottle and the spoon. 
This gradual change will neither fret the child nor 
annoy the mother, as sudden weaning always does. 

The infant may begin to be accustomed to arti- 
ficial food at the age of four months. At first, only 
diluted cow's milk should be given it occasionally 
between the times of nursing. In a tumbler one- 
third full of water dissolve a tea-spoonful of sugar 
of milk ; add to the sweetened water an equal 
quantity of fresh cow's milk ; then, if the child's 
stools are at all green, mix with this two tea- 
spoonfuls of lime water. Instead of pure water, 
barley-water made in the usual way, and boiled to 
the consistency of milk, may be employed in this 



WEANING. 2/9 

preparation — being added, while still warm, to an 
equal amount of milk. Or, toast-water may be 
substituted as a diluter of the milk. Cow's milk 
should not be boiled, if it can be preserved in any 
other way. As the infant advances in months, 
some solid food may be allowed. After six months, 
pap, made with stale bread and tops and bottoms, 
is proper once or twice a day. Beef-tea, made 
according to the recipe we have given, and chicken, 
lamb, or mutton broth, may now also be occa- 
sionally taken. As the quantity of milk diminishes 
towards the close of the first year, the spoon-food 
should be resorted to more frequently to supply 
the want. Solid food ought not to be given before 
the child is a year old. 

The breasts usually cause little trouble when the 
weaning is performed in the gradual manner which 
has been recommended. The mother should during 
this time drink as little as possible, refrain from 
stimulating food, and take occasionally a little 
cream of tartar, citrate of magnesia, or a seidlitz 
powder. If the breasts continue to fill with milk, 
they should not be drawn. The ' drying up of the 
milk ' may be facilitated by gently rubbing the 
breasts several times a day with camphorated oil, 
made by dissolving over the fire, in a saucer of 
sweet oil, as much camphor as it will take up. Tea 
made from the marshmallow has also been recom- 
mended for this purpose. 

TEETHING. 

The period at which the teeth first make their 

appearance is not a fixed one. It varies consider- 
24 



280 THE CHILD. 

ably even within the limits of perfect health. It 
may be said, as a rule, that the babe begins to cut 
its teeth at the age of six or seven months. Quite 
frequently, however, the first teeth appear as early 
as the fourth month, or are delayed until the 
eighth. In some instances children come into the 
world with their teeth already cut. This is said to 
have been the case with Louis XIV. and with 
Mirabeau. King Richard the Third is another 
example. Shakespeare makes the Duke of York 
refer to this circumstance in these words : 

' Marry, they say my uncle grew so fast, 
That he could gnaw a crust at two hours old : 
'Twas two full years ere I could get a tooth.' 

It does not follow that children whose teeth show 
themselves early, will have, therefore, a quicker 
general development. Such cases are merely in- 
stances of irregularity in the time of dentition, and 
carry with them no particular significance. Irre- 
gularities in regard to the order in which the teeth 
are cut are also of frequent occurrence. 

While, therefore, it cannot be maintained that 
all healthy children cut their teeth in a certain 
regular order and time, yet it is certain that those 
children who follow the general rule which prevails 
in this respect, suffer least from the difficulties and 
effects of dentition. As all mothers desire to know 
at what time they may expect the teeth, we will 
state the rule of their development in the great 
majority of cases. 

The lower teeth generally precede those of the 
upper jaw by two to three months. 



TEETHING. 28 1 

The twenty milk-teeth usually appear in the five 
following groups : — 

First, Between the fourth and eighth months of 
life the two lower front middle teeth appear almost 
simultaneously ; then a pause of from three to nine 
weeks ensues. 

Second, Between the eighth and tenth months of 
life the five upper front teeth appear, following 
shortly upon each other, the two central preceding 
the two on each side of them. Another pause of 
from six to twelve weeks succeeds. 

Third, Between the twelfth and sixteenth months 
of life six teeth appear nearly at once. They are 
first the two front grinding teeth in the upper jaw, 
leaving a space between them and the front teeth 
which before appeared ; next the two lower front 
teeth, situated one on each side of the central ones, 
which were the first to appear ; and, lastly, the two 
front grinders of the lower jaw. A pause until the 
eighteenth month now ensues. 

Fourth, Between the eighteenth and twenty- 
fourth months of life the canine teeth cut through 
(the upper ones are called eye-teeth). Again a 
pause until the thirtieth month. 

Fifth, Between the thirtieth and thirty-sixth 
months the second four grinders finally make their 
appearance. 

This concludes the first teething. The child has 
now twenty milk-teeth. 

We have mentioned that children are sometimes 
born with teeth. It is also true that sometimes 
they never acquire any. Instances are on record 
of adults who have never cut any teeth. Dentition 



282 THE CHILD. 

has been known to take place very late in life. A 
case is related, on excellent authority, of an old 
lady aged eighty-five, who cut several teeth after 
attaining that age. 

APPEARANCE OF THE PERMANENT TEETH. 

Between the fifth and sixth years of life the 
second dentition begins. The front grinders are 
the ones first cut through. Between the sixth and 
tenth years all the front teeth appear, followed by 
the canines before the twelfth year. At this time 
the second grinders show themselves ; and finally, 
between the sixteenth and twenty-fourth year, the 
wisdom-teeth complete the dental furniture of the 
mouth. 

VACCINATION. 

This operation, to which every infant should be 
subjected, is one of great practical importance. The 
attempt has been made of late to shake the public 
faith in its efficacy, and to revive the old fabulous 
stories and foolish notions as to the production of 
serious affections of the blood and skin in this 
manner. At the same time, the increasing fre- 
quency and virulence of small-pox are becoming 
only too evident. We therefore consider it our 
duty, in treating of the maternal management of 
infancy, to lay some stress upon the necessity for 
vaccination as a preservative of life and health. If 
observation and experience ever taught anything, 
they have taught the protective power of this opera- 
tion against the most loathsome and one of the 
most fatal diseases that ever afflicted the human 



IMPORTANCE OF VACCINATION. 283 

race. And that mother who is careless and in- 
different in this matter neglects for her children a 
means of preventing disfigurement and saving life, 
compared with which all other means are scarcely 
worthy of mention. 

In order to appreciate the value of vaccination, 
it is only necessary to consider what small-pox was 
before its discovery, — to look at that disease through 
the eyes of our fathers and grandfathers. Until the 
close of the last century it was the most terrible of 
all the ministers of death. It filled the church- 
yards with corpses. When Jenner published his 
great discovery, about seventy years ago, the annual 
death-rate from small-pox in England was estimated 
at three thousand in the million of population. In 
other countries of Europe the rate reached as high 
as four thousand in the million. And these fatal 
cases must be multiplied by five or six, to give the 
entire number of persons annually attacked by the 
disease. It spared neither high nor low. Macaulay 
informs us that Queen Mary, the wife of William III., 
fell a victim to it. Those in whom the disease did 
not prove fatal, carried about with them the hideous 
traces of its malignity ; for it ' turned the babe into 
a changeling at which the mother shuddered,' and 
made ' the eyes and cheeks of the betrothed maiden 
objects of horror to the lover.' Few escaped being 
attacked by this fell disease. Nearly one-tenth of 
all the persons who died in London during the last 
century died of this one cause. Children were 
peculiarly its victims. In some of the great cities 
of England more than one-third of all the deaths 

among children under ten years of age arose from 
24* 



284 THE CHILD. 

small-pox. Two-thirds of all the applicants for 
relief at the Hospital for the Indigent Blind had 
lost their sight by small-pox. The number of 
hopeless deafened ears, crippled joints, and broken- 
down constitutions from the same cause cannot be 
accurately computed, but was certainly very large. 
Vaccination is all that now stands between us and 
all these horrors of the last century. 

Is the strength of this barrier doubted ? — Its 
efficacy is readily proved. In England, during the 
twelve years (1854- 1865) in which vaccination has 
been to a certain extent compulsory, the average 
annual rate of deaths by small-pox has been two 
hundred and two in the million of population. 
Contrast this with the annual death-rate of three 
thousand to the million, which was the average of 
thirty years previous to the introduction of vacci- 
nation. Mr. John Simon, medical officer of Her 
Majesty's Privy Council, one of the best statisticians 
in England, has collected a formidable array of 
figures, ' to doubt which would be to fly in the face 
of the multiplication-table.' From his mountain- 
height of statistics Mr. Simon says : ' Wheresoever 
vaccination falls into neglect, small-pox tends to 
become again the same frightful pestilence it was 
in the days before Jenner's discovery ; and wherever 
it is universally and properly performed, small-pox 
tends to be of as little effect as any extinct epidemic 
of the Middle Ages.' 

Are other diseases ever produced by vaccination ? 
— The popular belief would answer this question in 
the affirmative. All affections of the skin and 
swellings of the glands noticed in children soon 



IS VACCINATION SAFE? 28$ 

after vaccination, are attributed by parents in many 
cases to this operation. They forget that such 
diseases are met with constantly in infancy and 
childhood, as often among the unvaccinated as the 
vaccinated. Observation does not show that they 
occur with greater frequency among the vaccinated. 
An English physician has been at the trouble to 
examine and record a thousand cases of skin disease 
in children : he found no evidence whatever that 
vaccination disposes the constitution to such affec- 
tions. It has been stated with apparent justness, 
that parental complaints of this kind frequently 
arise from their unwillingness to believe there is 
anything wrong in their offspring. Hence, when 
other diseases follow, vaccination gets blamed for 
what is really and truly due to other causes. So 
far from doing any harm to the system, it has been 
observed in those countries where vaccination has 
been most thoroughly practised, that, leaving small- 
pox out of the question, there have been fewer 
deaths from other maladies. This is especially true 
of two of the most important classes of diseases, 
namely, scrofulous affections and low fever. For 
this reason, some medical statisticians have attri- 
buted to vaccination an indirect protective influence 
against these disorders. 

At what age should the child be vaccinated ? — 
If the health permit, the operation should always 
be performed in very early infancy. The chief 
sufferers from small-pox are young children. One- 
fourth of all who die from this fatal disease in 
England are children under the age of one year. 
In Scotland, where until recently vaccination has 



286 THE CHILD. 

been much more neglected than in England, the 
proportion even amounted to nearly one-third ; and 
of these, one-fourth were under the age of three 
months. The great risk, particularly in large towns, 
where small-pox is seldom absent, of delaying vac- 
cination is obvious. City children, if hearty, should 
be vaccinated when a month or six weeks old. 
Rarely or never ought it to be delayed beyond two 
or three months. This early period of life is also 
particularly suitable to vaccination, because the 
accompanying fever will then be over before the 
disturbing influence of teething begins. 

RE-VACCINATION. 

If the first vaccination be found imperfect in 
character, that is, if it has not properly ' taken,' 
the operation should be repeated at the earliest 
opportunity. It has been recommended, in all 
cases, to perform a second vaccination not later 
than the sixth or eighth year. If small-pox be 
prevailing, it is proper to vaccinate all who have 
not been vaccinated within three or four years. 
In any event, re-vaccination at or after the period 
of puberty is of extreme importance, It will give 
additional security even to those whose original 
vaccination was perfect. In some cases, the sus- 
ceptibility to small-pox is not wholly exhausted 
by one vaccination. Inasmuch as it is desirable 
for every one to escape this disease, even in its 
most modified form, re-vaccination should always 
be performed, as it affords a very sure and trust- 
worthy means of such escape. After successful 
re-vaccination, small-pox, even in its mildest shape, 



RE VA CCINA TION. 2%J 

is rarely met with. In girls especially, in whom 
the changes which occur at puberty are most 
marked, re-vaccination should be performed about 
the age of fourteen. 

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT. 

During infancy the body grows with great 
rapidity. About the end of the third year one- 
half of the adult height of the body is attained. 
After this period growth is more gradual ; for in 
order to reach the remaining half, about eighteen 
years more are required. At twenty years of age 
the height is somewhat more than three and a half 
times that at birth, and the weight about twenty 
times. Development does not go on at an equal 
rate in all parts of the body. The lower limbs, 
small at birth, increase proportionally more rapidly, 
while the head, relatively large at birth, developes 
more slowly. The muscular system is gradually 
strengthened. At the end of the third month the 
infant is able, if in good health, readily to support 
its head ; at the fourth month it can be held up- 
right ; at the ninth month it crawls about the 
floor ; by the end of the year it is able with assist- 
ance to step ; and between one and two years, at 
different times, according to its vigor and activity, 
it acquires the power of standing and walking 
alone. The periods of greatest and least growth 
of the child are, on the one hand, spring and 
summer ; on the other, autumn and winter. It 
has long been known that animals grow more 
rapidly in the spring than at any other season 
of the year. This has been attributed to the 



288 THE CHILD. 

abundance of herbage they are then able to obtain. 
It has been ascertained by actual measurement, 
that children grow chiefly in the spring. 

At six months of age the child begins to lisp, 
and at twelve months it is usually able to utter 
distinct and intelligible sounds of one or two syl- 
lables. The development of the senses and of the 
mind proceeds gradually. The sense of hearing is 
more active and further advanced than that of 
sight. Sounds are appreciated sooner than light 
or bright colored objects. The next sense which 
is developed is perhaps that of taste ; then follow 
smell and touch. 

THE FOOD OF INFANTS AND CHILDREN. 

The diet of children is frequently improper 
either in regard to quantity, quality, or variety. 
In 1867, a committee, of which Professor Austin 
Flint, Jr., was chairman, was appointed in New 
York city to revise the ' Dietary Table of the 
Children's Nurseries on Randall's Island.' In the 
report rendered, attention was forcibly called to 
the fact that in childhood 'the demands of the 
system for nourishment are in excess of the waste, 
the extra quantity being required for growth and 
development. If the proper quantity and variety 
of food be not provided, full development cannot 
take place, and the children grow up, if they sur- 
vive, into young men and women, incapable of the 
ordinary amount of labor, and liable to diseases of 
various kinds. This is frequently illustrated in the 
higher walks of life, particularly in females ; for 
many suffer through life from improper diet in 



LIEBI&S SOUP. 289 

boarding schools, due to false and artificial notions 
of delicacy or refinement. After a certain period 
of improper and deficient diet in children, the ap- 
petite becomes permanently impaired, and the 
system is rendered incapable of appropriating the 
amount of matter necessary to proper development 
and growth.' 

Charlotte ' Bronte has drawn, in Jane Eyre, a 
graphic and physiologically true picture of the 
effects upon young girls of long-continued insuffi- 
ciency of food. Let mothers bear in mind that 
proper food cannot be too abundantly eaten by 
children, and that the greatest danger to which 
they are exposed arises from defective nutrition. 
We would again urge the value of a large amount 
of milk in the dietary of young people. The 
disorders of the bowels, which are not uncom- 
mon in infancy and childhood, are due to errors 
in diet by which improper food is supplied, and not 
to an excess of simple and proper nourishment. 

We have already given some directions for the 
preparation of infants' food in treating of ' bringing- 
up by hand.' In addition to the various substi- 
tutes for the mother's milk there mentioned, we 
wish to note that known as Liebigs soup. This 
great chemist thus describes the method of making 
it: 

' Half an ounce of wheat flour, half an ounce 
of malt meal, and seven and a half grains of bicar- 
bonate of potassa, are weighed off. They are first 
mixed by themselves, then with the addition of one 
ounce of water, and lastly, of five ounces of milk. 
This mixture is then heated upon a slow fire, being 

T 



290 THE CHILD. 

constantly stirred until it begins to get thick. At 
this period the vessel is removed from the fire, 
and the mixture is stirred for five minutes, is again 
heated and again removed when it gets thick, 
and, lastly, it is heated till it boils. This soup is 
purified from bran by passing it through a fine 
sieve (a piece of fine muslin), and now it is ready 
for use.' 

Barley-malt can be obtained at any brewery. 
First, it is separated from the impurities, and then 
ground in an ordinary coffee-mill to a coarse meal. 
Care should be taken to get the common fresh 
wheat-flour, not the finest, because the former is 
richest in starch. 

In practice, the troublesome weighing of the ma- 
terials may be dispensed with, as a heaped table- 
spoonful of wheat-flour weighs pretty nearly half 
an ounce, and a like table-spoonful of malt-meal, 
not quite as heaped, weighs also half an ounce. 
The bicarbonate of potassa can be obtained from 
the druggist put up in powders of seven and a half 
grains, each ready for use. The amount of water 
and of milk prescribed can be attained with suffi- 
cient accuracy by means of the table-spoon ; two 
table-spoonfuls will give the quantity of water (one 
ounce), and ten table-spoonfuls the quantity of 
milk (five ounces). These directions will enable 
any sensible mother to make the preparation with- 
out difficulty. The soup tastes tolerably sweet, and, 
when diluted with water, may be given to very 
young infants. 

Although the method of preparing Liebig's soup 
is a somewhat tedious one, yet, as it is a combina- 



INFANTS FOOD. 29 1 

tion which has long been so highly recommended 
by physicians of the largest experience for having 
visibly saved the lives of many wasting children, 
it deserves a trial in all cases in which the ordinary 
kinds of food disagree. 

On page 276 are recorded the directions given 
by Dr. J. Forsyth Meigs for an article of diet, con- 
sisting of gelatine and arrowroot, which he prefers 
to all other kinds of artificial infant food. Another 
method of preparing a useful arrowroot mixture is 
as follows : — 

Place a teaspoonful of arrowroot in a porcelain 
vessel, with as much cold water as will make it into 
a fine dough ; then add a cupful of boiling milk or 
of beef-tea ; stir the mixture a little, and allow it 
to boil for a few minutes until the whole acquires 
the consistency of a fine light jelly. 

The manner in which nutriment is administered 
to infants is not immaterial. The custom of feeding 
them from a small spoon, or from a cup with a 
snout, is objectionable. The use of a sucking-bottle 
most nearly imitates the way in which nature de- 
signed the nursling to obtain its nourishment. By 
the act of sucking, the muscles of the face are 
exercised in an equal manner, and the saliva is 
mixed with the food to an extent which is not pos- 
sible if any other mode of feeding be resorted to. 
Children drink very readily out of the perforated 
rubber nipples, which are now so popular for this 
purpose : they are made to fit over the mouth of 
the bottle, and are especially to be recommended 
on account of their cleanliness. The bottle should 
never be refilled until both it and the rubber cap* 
25 T 2 



292 THE CHILD. 

have been thoroughly cleansed in warm water. A 
white glass bottle only should be employed in 
order that any want of cleanliness may readily be 
detected. It should be recollected that milk very 
quickly sours when kept in this way in a warm 
room : it is therefore better always to empty the 
bottle and fill it afresh each time it is given to 
the child, rather than to wait until its contents are 
exhausted before replenishing it. 

We have hitherto been treating mainly of the 
diet proper for the first year of life. In the second 
year children may be permitted to have soft, finely- 
cut meat. Fresh ripe fruit in season ordinarily 
agrees excellently well. But boiled green vege- 
tables and husk fruits are very apt to cause indiges- 
tion and diarrhoea. Fruit for children should be 
freed from the stones and skins ; which latter are 
indigestible, and often do harm. 

As an example of a diet suitable for a child two 
years of age we append the following : — In the 
mornings, between six and seven o'clock in summer, 
or between seven and eight in winter, milk-gruel ; 
between nine and ten o'clock, a piece of wheat 
bread with a little butter on it ; at twelve o'clock, 
well-prepared beef-tea, or chicken, lamb, mutton 
broth, or meat with a little gravy ; or in place of 
the meat, a meal-broth prepared with eggs, but 
with very little fat ; green vegetables to be allowed 
very rarely, and in very small quantities. At this 
noon meal a mealy well-mashed potato is unobjec- 
tionable ; so also is rice pudding for a change. 
In the afternoon, between three and four, bread 
•and milk, with the addition in summer of fresh 



DIETETIC TABLE. 293 

ripe fruit ; in the evening, at seven, bread and 
milk. 

It will be observed that this dietetic table calls 
for five meals a day. Should the child eat so fre- 
quently ? We answer yes. But the meals should 
be at regular intervals. A child, in order to re- 
place the waste of the system, and to furnish over 
and above sufficient material to build up the growing 
body, requires a much larger proportionate amount 
of food than an adult. It also requires its food at 
shorter intervals. By observing the hours for meals 
stated above, regularity, which is of so much im- 
portance to the health of the digestive organs, will 
be secured. If a young child be allowed only the 
three ordinary meals of the family, it will crave for 
something between times, and too often have its 
craving met with a piece of cake or other improper 
food. Its appetite for dinner or supper will in this 
manner be destroyed, and the stomach and the 
general health suffer. 

After the third or fourth year children are able 
to eat all kinds of vegetables. They may then 
very appropriately be allowed to eat at the table 
with the family. It is only necessary to refuse 
them very salt, sour, and highly-spiced victuals. 
Of all others they may partake in moderation. 
Neither wine nor any malt liquor should be given 
them. Tea and coffee are also, to say the least, 
unnecessary. They should have a regular luncheon 
between the meals which are furthest apart. This 
must be at a regular hour, and consist of bread and 
butter, with milk or water. 

Pains should be taken to see that children do 



294 THE CHILD. 

not fall into the habit of eating rapidly. Too often 
this pernicious habit, so destructive to healthy 
digestion, is formed in early life, and becomes the 
source of that dyspepsia which is the bane of so 
many lives. Food that is gulped down enters the 
stomach unmasticated, and unmixed with the secre- 
tions of the mouth. A dog may bolt his foocl 
without injury, but a human being cannot. 

A child should be taught to eat everything that 
is wholesome, and not be permitted to become 
finical or fastidious in its appetite. It ought not, 
however, to be forced to eat any particular article 
for which it is found that there is an invincible dis- 
like. Variety of diet is good for a child, after the 
second or third year. 

THE POSITION OF THE CHILD WHEN FED. 

An infant, no matter how young, should not 
receive its meals when lying. Its head should 
always be raised in the nurse's arm, if it be too 
young to support it itself. The practice of jolting 
and dandling the infant after eating is a wrong 
one. Rest of the body should be secured by 
placing the child on a bed, or holding it on the 
mother's knee, for a half hour or so. Observe the 
inclination which all animals show for repose and 
sleep after a full repast, and respect the same 
inclination in the infant. 

In our remarks upon bathing we pointed out the 
importance of the mother herself performing for 
her child this office. So again, in connection with 
children's food, we must notice the necessity of the 
mother being always present at their meals, in 



THE SLEEP OF INFANCY. 295 

order that they may be taught to take them 
quietly, with cleanliness and without hurry. Such 
advice is not needed by the poor nor by women of 
moderate fortune, who ord'narily have their children 
constantly under their eyes. But affluence brings 
with it many occupations which are frequently 
deemed of more moment than presiding over a 
child's dinner. 

CONCERNING SLEEP IN EARLY LIFE. 

There is a natural desire for much sleep during 
infancy, childhood, and youth ; and there is reason 
for its free indulgence. Infants pass the greater por- 
tion of both day and night in sleep. Children up to 
the age of six years require, as a rule, twelve hours 
of repose at night, besides an hour or more in the 
middle of the day. About the sixth year the noon 
nap may be discontinued, but the night sleep ought 
not to be abridged before the tenth year, and then 
only to a moderate extent until the age of puberty. 
From this time the period of slumber may be gra- 
dually reduced to nine or ten hours. No further 
diminution should be attempted until the comple- 
tion of growth, when another hour or two may be 
taken away, leaving about eight hours of daily 
sleep as the proper amount during middle life. 

It is wrong, therefore, to wake a young child in the 
morning. It should be allowed to sleep as long as 
it will, which will be until the wants of the system 
are satisfied, if it be not aroused by noise or 
light. 

When after a few months the infant is awake a 

considerable portion of the day, it should be 
25* 



296 THE CHILD. 

brought into the habit of taking its second sleep 
near the middle of the day, say from eleven to one 
o'clock, and again, from half an hour to an hour, 
about three o'clock. It should not be permitted a 
nap later than this in the afternoon, as it would be 
very apt to cause a disturbed night. Although 
some physicians recommend that the sleep during 
the day be discontinued after the infant has attained 
the age of fifteen months, the wisdom of such ad- 
vice may well be doubted. As soon as the child 
begins to walk, not only are its movements very 
constant and active, but its mind is busily employed 
and its nervous system excited. It therefore thrives 
better if its day be divided into two by sleep for 
an hour or two. 

Should the infant sleep alone ? — We have men- 
tioned the danger of being overlain to which it is 
exposed when in bed with its mother or nurse. On 
the other hand, it must be remembered that an 
infant keeps warm with difficulty even when well 
covered, and that contact with the mother's body is 
the best way of securing its own warmth. Hence, 
during the first months the child had better be 
allowed to sleep with its mother. How, then, can 
the risk of being suffocated, which is no imaginary 
one, be lessened ? The following rules are those 
given by a physician of reputation, to prevent an 
infant from being accidentally overlain. 

' Let the baby while asleep have plenty of room 
in the bed. Do not allow him to be too near, or, 
if this be unavoidable from the small size of the 
bed, let his face be turned to the opposite side. 
Let him lie fairly, either on his side or on his back. 



TO PREVENT OVERLAYING. 297 

Be careful to ascertain that his mouth be not 
covered with the bed-clothes. Do not smother his 
face with clothes, as a plentiful supply of pure air 
is as necessary as when he is awake. Never let 
him lie low in the bed. Let there be no pillow 
near the one his head is resting on, lest he roll to 
it and bury his head in it. Remember a young 
child has neither the strength nor the sense to get 
out of danger ; and if he unfortunately either turn 
on his face or bury his head in a pillow that is near, 
the chances are that he will be suffocated, more 
especially as these accidents usually occur at night, 
when the mother or the nurse is fast asleep. 
Never entrust him at night to a young, giddy, and 
thoughtless servant. A foolish mother sometimes 
goes to sleep while allowing her child to continue 
sucking. The unconscious babe, after a time, loses 
the nipple, and buries his head in the bed-clothes. 
She awakes in the morning, finding, to her horror, 
a corpse by her side ! A mother ought therefore 
never to go to sleep until her child has ceased 
sucking.' 

When a couple of months have elapsed, the 
child, if a healthy one, may sleep alone. What the 
child sleeps in is not a matter of great moment, 
provided it has a sufficiency of clothing, and be not 
exposed to currents of air. A large clothes-basket 
will serve all the purposes of a crib. The mistake 
is often made of burying the child under too heavy 
a mass of bed-clothes in a warm room when asleep. 
And this inconsistency is committed by the very 
mothers who scantily clad the child during the day 
in order to inure it to the cold. The great transi- 



298 the child. 

tion from its wrappings by night to those by day is 
injurious to the health and comfort of the infant. 

' In arranging night coverings, the soft feather- 
bed is very often estimated as nothing ; or, in other 
words, the same provision of blankets is considered 
indispensable, whether we lie upon a hard mattress 
or immersed in down. The mother, looking only 
to the covering laid over the child, forgets those on 
which it lies, although in reality the latter may be 
the warmer of the two. An infant deposited in a 
downy bed has at least two-thirds of its body in 
contact with the feathers, and may thus be per- 
spiring at every pore, when, from its having, only a 
single covering thrown over it, the mother may 
imagine it to be enjoying the restorative influence 
of agreeable slumber. In hot weather much 
mischief might be done by an oversight of this 
kind.' 

It is of course essential to the health and comfort 
of the infant that its bed and bed-clothing be kept 
perfectly dry and sweet. They should frequently 
be taken out and exposed to the air. 

A child should be accustomed early to sleep in a 
darkened room. Plutarch praises the women of 
Sparta for, among other things, teaching their chil- 
dren not to be afraid in the dark. He says they 
' were so careful and expert, that without swaddling- 
bands their children were all straight and well pro- 
portioned ; and they brought them up not to be 
afraid in the dark or of being alone, and never in- 
dulged them in crying, fretfulness, and ill-humour ; 
upon which account Spartan nurses were often 
bought by people of other countries.' 



POSITION IN SLEEPING. 299 

Position in sleeping. — It has long been a popular 
opinion that the position of our bodies at night, 
with reference to the cardinal points of the com- 
pass, has some influence on the health. This belief 
has recently been corroborated by some observa- 
tions made by a prominent physician, Dr. Henry 
Kennedy. In an essay on the ' Acute Affections 
of Children,' published in the Dublin Quarterly 
Journal of Medical Science, he states that for 
several years he has put in force in his practice a 
plan of treatment by means of the position of the 
patient, and often with very marked results. He 
asserts* that, in order to ensure the soundest sleep, 
the head should lie to the north. Strange as this 
idea may at first sight appear, it has more in it than 
might be supposed. There are known to be great 
electrical currents always coursing in one direction 
around the globe. In the opinion of Dr. Kennedy 
there is no doubt that our nervous systems are in 
some mysterious way connected with this universal 
agent, as it may be called, electricity. He relates 
several cases of acute diseases in children, in which, 
by altering the position of the body so that the 
patient should lie from north to south instead of 
from east to west, quiet sleep was induced. This 
plan of invoking sleep is often successful ; but not 
always so, for all are not equally susceptible. It 
applies likewise to adults. It is not so striking in 
its effects on the poorer as on the richer classes of 
society. This is what might be expected, for it 
cannot be doubted that the nervous system in the 
middle and upper ranks is always in a much more 
sensitive state than with their poorer brethren. It 



300 THE CHILD. 

is worth noting, that even in healthy persons sleep 
will often be absent or of a broken kind, from the 
cause of which we are now speaking. It is very 
common to hear people saying they can never sleep 
in a strange bed. Although many causes may con- 
spire to this, Dr. Kennedy cannot doubt that amongst 
these ought to be placed the one to which we are 
now drawing attention. 

THE CLOTHING OF INFANTS AND YOUNG 
CHILDREN. 

A fertile cause of disease and death is to be 
found in the negligence or ignorance displayed in 
regard to the dress of children. And it is not the 
poorly attired, but nearly always the fashionably 
robed child, which suffers the most. To parental 
vanity can be traced many a catarrh on the chest or 
the inflammation of the bowels which has resulted in 
death. Most mothers appear to be ignorant of the 
fact that children are exceedingly susceptible to 
the influence of cold. The returns of the Registrar- 
General of England show that a very cold week 
always greatly increases the mortality of the very 
young. While adults carefully protect themselves 
against every change of the weather, and against 
currents of air, children, who most need such pro- 
tection, are too often neglected. 

The warmth of the infant's body is best secured 
by that of the nurse, and by warm clothing. It is 
more effectually and healthfully provided for in 
this manner than by confining the child to a warm 
atmosphere. Young children should never be 
dressed decollete- — in low necks and short sleeves. 



CLOTHING OF INFANTS. 30I 

That fashion is a dangerous one which leaves the 
neck, shoulders, and arms uncovered. To this 
irrational custom may be traced a vast amount of 
the suffering and many of the deaths of early life ; 
doubtless, also, in many cases it lays the founda- 
tion of consumption, which manifests itself a little 
later. But, it is said, the child will be ' hardened ' 
by having its chest and limbs thus exposed. The 
surest and safest way to harden the child is to so 
care for it that it shall pass through its first months 
and years of life without any ailment. Every 
mother should see to it, that her charge is so 
clothed that every part of the body is effectually 
protected from dampness and cold. She can then 
best secure for it a hardened constitution by carry- 
ing it daily into the sunlight of the open air. 

The material of the clothing should be such as 
will unite lightness with warmth. Flannel and 
calico are therefore to be preferred. At first, as 
the skin of the child is very delicate, a shirt of fine 
linen may be interposed between it and the flannel. 
But, after the first few months, the gentle friction 
of fine soft flannel next the skin is desirable, as it 
stimulates the circulation of the blood on the sur- 
face of the body, and promotes health. Flannel 
under-clothing should be continued all the year ; 
during the summer months a very light texture 
being used. When the dress of the child is short- 
ened, care must be taken that the feet are well 
covered with soft stockings of cotton or woollen 
(which in winter should extend up above the 
knees), and with light leather shoes. 

The night-dress, at least during cold weather, is 



302 THE CHILD. 

best made of flannel, thin or thick according to the 
climate. It has been recommended that, after the 
child is somewhat advanced, the night-clothes be 
constructed in the form of night-pants, so that it 
may not be exposed if the bed-clothing be thrown 
off. Every article of dress worn during the day 
ought to be removed at night. 

The rule in regard to the quantity of clothing is, 
that it should be in sufficient amount to preserve 
due warmth. It must therefore be regulated by 
the season of the year and the state of the weather. 
We have mentioned the fatal practice of leaving 
bare at all seasons of the year the upper part of 
the chest and arms of the little one, while the rest 
of the body is warmly, clad. We can scarcely 
speak too emphatically nor too often of the danger 
to which the mother thus exposes that life, which 
it is her duty to wisely and safely conduct through 
the period of dependent infancy and childhood. It 
is of course possible for the child to be too closely 
enveloped, and the skin thus rendered highly sus- 
ceptible to the impressions of cold. The prevalent 
error, however, at the present time, is in the direc- 
tion of too scanty clothing. 

The make of the dress should be loose and easy, 
so as to permit of the free movement of all portions 
of the body ; it should be cut high in the neck, and 
with sleeves to the wrists ; its construction should 
be simple, so that it may be quickly put off and on ; 
and the fastenings employed should, as far as pos- 
sible, be tapes, not pins. In the clothing of children 
the laws of hygiene, and not the code of fashion, 
should direct the shape and style. 



THE BATH. 303 

THE BATHING OF INFANTS AND YOUNG 
CHILDREN. 

Many advantages attach to the daily use of the 
bath for infants. It secures cleanliness, strengthens 
the nervous system, and preserves from colds and 
coughs. 

We have already endeavoured to impress upon 
the mind of the reader the great susceptibility to 
cold which exists in early life. On this account 
the water for the bath should be warm (96 or 98 ) 
for the first few weeks of infancy, especially during 
the winter season. Gradually the temperature may 
be reduced to that of the apartment, never to actual 
coldness. It is as foolish and hazardous to attempt 
to ' harden ' infants by plunging them into cold 
water, as it is by carrying them with uncovered 
necks, chests, and limbs into the keen and damp 
air. Knowledge of these facts would bring safety 
to many children who now suffer, because of the 
dangerous ignorance of mothers in regard to the 
susceptibility of the infant organisation. 

An infant should be immersed in its tub every 

morning. Besides the regular morning bath, it is 

often advisable to put the child for a few minutes 

in tepid water in the evening. This will quiet 

the nervous system, and induce sleep. The bath 

should not be too long a one, for fear of exciting 

perspiration ; nor, for the same reason, should the 

water be too warm. If the child be of a delicate 

constitution, the evening bath will be especially 

useful, and can be made more so by the addition of 

two table-spoonfuls of salt to the water necessary 

for the bath. 
26 



304 THE CHILD. 

The time immediately after nursing or feeding 
is not proper for bathing. An hour or two after a 
meal should be allowed to elapse. Neither should 
a bath ever be given in a cold room. Even in a 
warm atmosphere, care should be taken, both after 
and during the ablution, that the wet skin of the 
infant be not exposed to the air. Its body should 
be completely immersed ; it should not be held up 
out of the water, nor, if it be old enough, allowed 
to stand or sit in the tub. It is well also to have 
a warm blanket in which to receive the child as 
it comes dripping from the bath. It should be 
wrapped up in this for a few minutes, to absorb a 
part of the moisture. Then a portion of the body 
should be uncovered at a time, and dried before 
exposing the rest. 

Drying the skin. — For this purpose a piece of 
soft flannel will be found serviceable. By gently 
rubbing the surface of the body with it the skin 
will be warmed and stimulated, and the resulting 
glow will be as agreeable to the child as is that in 
the adult which follows the Turkish bath. The 
actual grooming of the human body is very useful 
to improve the health of scrofulous children. 

At first from three to five minutes will be a 
sufficiently long immersion. In a little while, how- 
ever, this period may be lengthened, all the pre- 
cautions mentioned against injurious exposure 
being observed. 

The lukewarm daily bath, taken either in the 
morning or evening, ought to be continued until 
at least the age of four years. If, after the fourth 
or fifth year, ablutions of the entire body be 



USE OF THE BATH. 305 

resorted to only every second or third day, the 
practice should be commenced of sponging the 
chest every morning with cold, or alternately with 
cold and hot water, followed by brisk frictions. 

Soap is to be used but sparingly in the bath of 
young children. It must be of the blandest and 
purest quality. Various eruptions are caused by 
the employment of impure soaps, and even by the 
excessive application of the best kind. 

In illustration of the importance of our present 
subject, we may state that Dr. Hufeland, to whose 
admirable work on the art of prolonging life we 
have before alluded, lays down, as one of the 
means which lengthen life, the care of the skin. 
He dwells upon the benefit of paying such attention 
to it from infancy that it may be kept in a lively, 
active, and useful condition. 

The power of the bath to ward off disease in 
childhood is not sufficiently appreciated by parents. 
Properly managed, it soothes, but never increases, 
any internal irritation which may exist, and often 
does away with the necessity of resorting to the 
administration of drugs. If due attention were 
paid to the condition of the skin in early life, many 
of the most common ailments of childhood would 
be averted. The daily employment of the bath, 
and scrupulous attention to cleanliness of the per- 
son and clothing, would materially lessen the de- 
mand both for purgative medicines and for soothing 
syrups. 

One word more in regard to the washing of the 
infant. The mother herself, if she be in health, 
should always perform this office, and not entrust 

u 



306 THE CHILD. 

it to the child's nurse. Plutarch awards high 
praise to Cato, the censor, for his invariable 
custom of being present when his child was 
washed. Every mother, at least, would do well 
to follow the example of this old Roman. It will 
give her the opportunity to detect many incipient 
affections which would for a long while escape her 
attention if she saw the child only when dressed. 
The mother will also take pains to engage the 
mind of the little one, and render the bath a source 
of amusement to it. 

After the fourth or fifth year, two or three baths 
a week during the colder seasons of the year will 
be sufficient to keep the skin clean, and properly 
active. During the summer, however, a daily bath 
is of great advantage to children, and ought not to 
be neglected. 

Swimming is very useful and very invigorating 
to the health of both sexes. It is desirable that 
children be taught this art. 

The importance of the culture of the skin to the 
well-being of infancy and childhood cannot be 
brought too prominently to the notice of all 
mothers. We have therefore endeavoured to give 
some useful hints in regard both to the preserva- 
tion of its cleanliness, and to the prevention, by 
means of garments and warming, of its exposure 
to too great changes of temperature. 

By proper attention to the skin in the manner 
pointed out, many of the eruptions with which 
children are afflicted might be prevented. The 
appearance of these the mother ought to regard as 
a great calamity, for they are often difficult of cure, 



CULTURE OF THE SKIN. 307 

and render the child an object of disgust. She 
ought also to look upon them as the mischievous 
consequences of the neglect of those laws of health 
which it is her duty to learn and observe. 

AIR AND VENTILATION IN CHILDHOOD. 

Fresh air is necessary for the robust development 
of infancy and childhood. Infants born in the 
summer season should be carried out daily when 
the weather is pleasant, from the second or third 
day after birth. Those born in the winter should 
be kept in the house for two or three months before 
being introduced to the outer world on some sunny 
noonday. Older children can scarcely pass too 
much time in the open air. 

A change in the dress must, of course, be made 
before exposing the child to the out-door air. The 
head should be covered, and the chest and limbs 
well protected from the cold. 

As a rule, a child ought to be carried out, or per- 
mitted, when old enough, to walk out, at least once 
every pleasant day during the year. The time of the 
day is to be varied with the season. In the winter, 
the middle of the day is to be chosen ; in summer, 
the early portion of the forenoon, a few hours after 
sunrise. 

Children show very quickly, even when in ill- 
health, the beneficial results of a ride or walk. It 
quiets the irritability to which they are liable, more 
effectually than any other procedure. For a deli- 
cate child, or one recovering from sickness, fresh 
air and sunshine are the best tonics which can be 

administered. A fretful, peevish child will soon 
26* u 2 



308 THE CHILD. 

learn to look forward to its daily jaunt on the 
street or road, and will be quieted by it for the 
rest of the day. 

At all times of the year regard must be had to 
the state of the weather. The infant ought never 
to be taken out on a wet day. Exposure to a 
damp atmosphere is one of the most powerful 
causes of catarrh on the chest and inflammation of 
the lungs, to which young children are so subject. 
A very high wind, even though the day be bright 
and dry, is injurious to a young infant, as it has 
been known to suspend its breathing for a time, 
which accident might, if not at once observed, bring 
about a fatal result. 

Besides fresh air, light is an indispensable re- 
quisite to the health of children. Nothing can 
compensate for the absence of its beneficial effects. 
It is to be remembered, however, that during the 
first week or two the eyes of the new-born babe are 
not strong enough to bear the full glare of light. 
The first eight days of its existence should be 
spent in a half-darkened room. Gradually the 
apartment may be brightened, until finally, after 
about two weeks, the young eyes become entirely 
accustomed to the light, and may be exposed to it 
without injury. A neglect of this precaution is one 
of the most common causes of the bad inflammation 
of the eyes so frequently met with among young 
infants. After the sight has become quite strong, a 
bright room will strengthen the eyes, not weaken 
them ; for light is the natural stimulant of the 
eye, as exercise is of the muscles, or food of the 
stomach. 



AIR AND VENTILATION. 309 

Scrofulous diseases are the heritage of those chil- 
dren who are deprived of a plentiful supply of pure 
air and light. A distinguished writer upon the laws 
of health ascribes to the careful avoidance of the 
salutary influence of air and light by so many 
young girls, who are fearful of walking out while 
the sun is powerful, much of their sickly appear- 
ance, the loss of consistency of their bones, and 
their being able to afford but a deformed temple to 
the immortal soul. 

Humboldt states that, during a five years' resi- 
dence in South America, he never saw any national 
deformity amongst the men or women belonging to 
the Carif, Muyscas, Indian, Mexican, or Peruvian 
races. If parents in our own country were to ac- 
custom their daughters from an early age to daily 
exercise in the open air and sunlight, there would 
be fewer weak backs 'requiring the support of appa- 
ratus from the surgical-instrument maker, and less 
pallor in lips and cheeks to be remedied by iron 
from the shop of the apothecary. 

EXERCISE IN CHILDHOOD. 

The first exercise which a child obtains, is had of 
course in its nurse's arms. Are there any directions, 
then, to be noticed in regard to the maimer of car- 
rying an infant ? — Dr. Eberle gives the following 
useful advice upon this subject : — ' The spine and its 
muscles seldom acquire sufficient strength and firm- 
ness before the end of the third month to enable 
the child to support its body in an upright position 
without inconvenience or risk of injury. Until this 
power is manifestly acquired, the infant should not 



310 THE CHILD. 

be carried or suffered to sit with its ..body erect, 
without supporting it in such a manner as to lighten 
the pressure made on the spine, and aid it in main- 
taining the upright posture of its head and trunk : 
therefore, at first (a few days after birth), the infant 
should be taken from its cradle or bed two or three 
times daily and laid on its back upon a pillow, and 
carried gently about the chamber. After the third 
or fourth week, the child may be carried in a re- 
clining posture on the arms of a careful nurse, in 
such a manner as to afford entire support both to 
body and head. This may be done by reclining 
the infant upon the forearm, the hand embracing 
the upper and posterior part of the thighs, whilst 
its body and head are supported by resting against 
the breast and arm of the nurse. When held in 
this way, it may be gently moved from side to side, 
or up and dow T n, while it is carefully carried through 
a well-ventilated room.' 

After the child is three months old, it will pro- 
bably have become strong enough to maintain itself 
in a sitting position. It may then be carried about 
in this upright posture, with the spine and head 
carefully supported by the nurse, which aid ought 
not to be withdrawn until the age of six or seven 
months. 

* In lifting young children,' as has been well 
observed by Dr. Barlow, ' the nurse should be very 
careful never to lay hold of them by the arms, as is 
sometimes thoughtlessly done ; but always to place 
the hands, one on each side of the chest, imme- 
diately below the armpits. In infancy the sockets 
of the joints are so shallow, and the bones so feebly 



INJURIOUS EXERCISES. 31 1 

bound down and connected with each other, that 
dislocation and even fracture of the collar-bone may 
easily be produced by neglecting this rule. For the 
same reason, it is a bad custom to support a child 
by one or even by both arms, when he makes his 
first attempt to walk. The grand aim which the 
child has in view, is to preserve his equilibrium. If 
he is partially supported by one arm, the body 
inclines to one side, and the attitude is rendered 
most unfavorable to the preservation of his natural 
balance; and consequently, the moment the support 
is in the least relaxed, the child falls over and is 
caught up with a jerk. Even when held by both 
arms, the attitude is unnatural and unfavorable to 
the speedy attainment of the object. To assist the 
child, we ought to place one hand on each side of 
the chest in such a way as to give the slightest 
possible support, and to be ready instantly to give 
more if he lose his balance. When this plan is 
followed, all the attitudes and efforts of the child 
are in a natural direction ; and success is attained 
not only sooner, but more gracefully, than by any 
ill-judged support given to one side. 

' There is one very common mode of exercising 
infants, which we think deserves particular notice : 
we mean the practice of hoisting or raising them 
aloft in the air. This practice is of such venerable 
antiquity, and so universal, that it would be vain to 
impugn it. The pleasure, too, which most children 
evince under it, seems to show that it cannot be so 
objectionable as a cursory observer would be dis- 
posed to consider it. Still there are hazards which 
ought not to be overlooked. The risk of accident 



312 THE CHILD. 

is one of some amount : children have slipped from 
the hands, and sustained serious injury. Some 
people are so energetic as to throw up children and 
catch them in descending. This rashness there can 
be no hesitation in reprobating ; for, however con- 
fident the person may be of not missing his hold, 
there must ever be risks of injury from the concus- 
sion suffered in the descent, and even from the 
firmness of the grasp necessary for recovering and 
maintaining the hold. The motion of the body, 
too, has a direct tendency to induce vertigo ; and 
when the liability of the infant brain to congestion 
and its consequences is considered, when the fre- 
quency of hydrocephalus in infants is borne in 
mind, an exercise which impels blood to the brain 
will not be regarded as wholly insignificant. There 
is one more objection which seems not to have 
attracted attention. The hold taken of the child 
in the act of hoisting him is by the hand grasping 
the chest. The fingers and thumb, placed on each 
side of the breast-bone, compress the ribs ; and any 
one with the hand so placed will at once perceive 
that if the pressure were strong, and the resistance 
from the elasticity of the ribs weak, the impression 
on the chest resulting would correspond exactly 
with the deformity named chicken-breast. That 
any force is ever used capable of inducing speedily 
such a change, is in the highest degree improbable ; 
but that reiterated pressure of this kind, however 
slight, would in a weakly child have power to 
impress and distort the chest, few, we imagine, will 
doubt/ 



THE FIRST STEPS. 313 

LEARNING TO WALK. 

When two or three months old, the infant may 
be placed on a soft mattress upon the floor or on 
the carpet. He can then toss his limbs about 
without danger, and develope the powers of his 
muscular system. 

' The best mode of teaching a child how to walk/ 
says Dr. Bull, ' is to let it teach itself ; and this it 
will do readily enough. It will first learn to crawl : 
this exercises every muscle in the body, does not 
fatigue the child, throws no weight upon the bones, 
but imparts vigor and strength, and is thus highly 
useful. After a while, having the power, it will 
wish to do more. It will endeavor to lift itself 
upon its feet by the aid of a chair ; and though it 
fail again and again in its attempts, it will still 
persevere until it accomplish it. By this, it learns 
first to raise itself from the floor ; and secondly, to 
stand, but not without keeping hold of the object 
on which it has seized. Next it will balance itself 
wit out holding, and will proudly and laughingly 
show that it can stand alone. Fearful, however, as 
yet of moving its limbs without support, it will 
seize a chair or anything else near it, when it will 
dare to advance as far as the limits of its support 
will permit. This little adventure will be repeated 
day after day with increased exultation ; when, 
after numerous trials, he will feel confident of his 
power to balance himself, and he will run alone. 
Now time is required for this gradual self-teaching, 
during which the muscles and bones become 
strengthened ; and when at last called upon to 



314 THE CHILD. 

sustain the weight of the body, are fully capable of 
doing so.' 

It is not merely want of strength which prevents 
an infant from walking at first. The natural shape 
of the legs renders it impossible. The feet are 
turned in so that the inner sides look upwards. 
When placed upon its feet, therefore, the soles will 
not rest upon the ground. In a short time the 
position of the feet changes, and they become fitted 
for the purposes of support and locomotion. When 
he begins to walk, the child should have shoes with 
tolerably broad soles, which ought to be at least 
half an inch longer than the foot. 

The first efforts of the little one to support and 
propel itself are to be carefully watched, but not 
unnecessarily interfered with*; neither frightened by 
expressions of fear, nor rendered timid by too fre- 
quent warnings. 

ADVANTAGES OF GAMES AND PLAYS. 

The first seven years of life should be one grand 
holiday for all sports and amusements which will 
bring into play the muscles, and divert at the same 
time the mind. Time cannot be more usefully em- 
ployed than in thus laying the foundation of health, 
upon which alone can rest the physical, mental, and 
moral wellbeing of after-life. 

No greater mistake can be made by parents than 
to deprive the young of the innocent pleasures of 
childhood. Yet there are persons occasionally met 
with who think it their duty to check the natural 
lightness and gaiety of heart of their children for 
fear that they shall become too fond of pleasure. 



ADVANTAGES OF GAMES AND PLAYS. 315 

In this way great harm is done to both mind and 
body, and the very fault created which it is desired 
to avoid. 

The wise parent sees in the games and plays of 
childhood not only necessary recreation and exer- 
cise, but a valuable means of education — of moral, 
mental, and physical training. He also seeks to 
impress early upon the young mind that play is 
most enjoyed when it has been earned by work, 
and that pleasure flies from those who continually 
pursue it. 

The faculties of memory and attention can be 
called upon and developed by proper games in a 
most satisfactory manner. These exercises are all 
the more effective because the pleasure conceals, as 
it were, the mental labor, and the intellectual efforts 
are made, in a sense, unconsciously, though none the 
less efficiently. 

Certain plays form a valuable means of educating 
the eyes and other senses. Such, for instance, are 
the toys which represent objects of natural history 
or of different trades and arts ; the pictures which 
teach through the quick eye of the child what no 
dry descriptions could ever convey ; and the games 
which develope closeness of observation and habits 
of order. A genial French physician has happily 
said, ' Every time I see a toy based on the repro- 
duction of a scientific fact or of an industrial pro- 
cess, and which pleases while it enlightens, I feel a 
sentiment of real gratitude to him who has de- 
signed it.' 

We are glad to see that each year more and 
more attention is being paid to the utilization, as it 
27 



3l6 THE CHILD. 

were, of the games of infancy. Although all edu- 
cation can never be made a play, all play can be 
made an effective education. Do not therefore, 
reader, restrict the games of your children, but 
direct them ; do not render them less amusing, but 
seek to make them more instructive. 

The schooling afforded by instructive plays should 
be the only schooling of the first seven years of life. 
Late springs produce the most abundant harvests 
in the mind as in the field. Precocious and delicate 
children especially should be kept from a too early 
and close application to books. By means of 
healthful and instructive games and sports ; by 
visits to workshops and factories where familiar 
objects are made ; and by a cultivation of the 
sense of the beautiful in nature and art, more can 
be done towards securing a sound mind in a sound 
body than by the easier and more common method 
of sending the child to school almost as soon as it 
can walk. 



IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING CHILDREN HYGIENIC 
HABITS. 

The force of habits should never be lost sight of 
by those having the charge of children. They con- 
stitute a power of which parents should early avail 
themselves. J. J. Rousseau has said, ' The only 
habit which one ought to permit the child, is of not 
contracting any.' But this is impossible and unde- 
sirable. When it is remembered that a good habit 
is just as Jiard to break as a bad one, the importance 
of seeking from the very cradle to frame good 



TEACHING HYGIENIC HABITS. 317 

habits is evident. It is easy to create, but difficult 
to reform. What then are some of the principal 
hygienic habits which it is desirable to teach 
children ? 

First we will mention, a liking for proper food at 
regular times. The indigestion, or weakness of 
digestion, from which many children suffer, is in 
some cases hereditary or the result of feeble health. 
But most frequently it is the effect of bad manage- 
ment. The giving to the child of pastry and cakes 
at meals instead of simple and nutritious food, the 
encouragement of capriciousness of appetite instead 
of teaching it to like everything that is healthful, 
and the neglect to inculcate the habit of eating at 
regular hours, these are the principal causes of 
many cases of diarrhoea, vomitings, weak appetite, 
colicky pains, and indigestion among children. 

The daily use of at least a sponge-bath of the 
entire person is an excellent habit. Cold water 
should be employed after the fifth or sixth year. 
This simple practice of a cold sponge-bath every 
morning, if more generally taught children, would 
avert many a cold and rheumatic attack in after 
life. 

The habit of quenching the thirst with only sim- 
ple drinks, milk and water, should be early and 
thoroughly formed. No American mother would 
think of giving spirits to her child, excepting under 
medical advice ; but many permit almost from 
infancy the use of tea and coffee. These drinks 
are not only unnecessary in childhood, but to a 
certain extent injurious. They excite the nervous 
system and disorder the digestion. Before the 



3l8 THE CHILD. 

age of puberty, neither tea nor coffee should be 
a lowed. 

ON THE TRAINING OF THE SPECIAL SENSES. 

The special senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste, 
and touch, have been called the windows of the 
soul, by which it observes what passes without. 
The most noble and intellectual of these are the 
sight and hearing. Neither of them receives the 
attention at the hands of parents and educators 
which it should. Indeed, the Indians who yet 
inhabit our western plains, have better eyes and 
ears than we. The reason of this is evident. The 
savage is obliged to make other use of his eyes 
than to dreamily admire the beautiful landscape, 
and other use of his ears than to listen to the 
singing of birds and the murmuring of wind and 
stream. These senses are the defenders of his life. 
He depends upon them for food, clothing, and pro- 
tection against his enemies. Hence, urged by 
necessity, he trains them from infancy, and brings 
them to a perfection which astonishes us. It will be 
said, however, that we in our civilized life, have no 
need of any such acuteness of sense. True, but we 
cannot avoid the consciousness that our organs of 
sight and hearing do not afford us the service they 
ought, and that they commence to fail us too early. 
The remedy is to be sought in the training of the 
special senses in early life. These senses, which 
are the first of our faculties to form and develope, 
should be the first to be educated ; yet, as has been 
well said, they are nearly the only ones which are 
forgotten, or at least they are the most neglected. 



TRAINING OF THE SPECIAL SENSES. 319 

The education of a sense has been compared to 
the education of a child, — it has its physical, its in- 
tellectual, and its moral side. It is necessary to 
maintain the organ in a condition of health in order 
that it may perform its work well ; this is the phy- 
sical education of the sense. The mind must learn 
to properly elaborate the impressions thus conveyed 
to it, this is the intellectual education of the sense. 
Finally, in the service of morality and justice, these 
impressions ought to be turned to the advantage 
of the good and the beautiful, this is the moral 
education of the sense. The subject of the 
training of the special senses is therefore, when 
properly viewed, a serious and most important one. 
It might well demand more attention at our hands 
than we have space to give it here. We will make 
our remarks as concise and practical as possible, 
commencing first with 

THE TRAINING OF THE SENSE OF SIGHT. 

A recent French writer on the hygiene of the 
sight has brought forward striking evidence in sup- 
port of his statement, that in our time the sense of 
sight is growing markedly weaker. The number of 
the near-sighted is augmenting, as is also the num- 
ber of those who become 'far-sighted' before old 
age. Cases of debility and disease of the eyes seem 
to be multiplying at a rate which should awaken 
general attention to this matter. The causes are 
to be found in the neglect, often the hurtful man- 
agement, of the eye-sight of children ; in the 
influence of improperly regulating artificial light • 

OT -V. fc> > 



320 THE CHILD. 

and in the injury done by bad printer's ink and 
paper. 

In the education of the child's eyesight, acnte- 
ness of vision is one of the first objects to be sought 
for. That this is largely a matter of training is 
apparent from the fact that persons in certain 
professions can readily distinguish objects too 
small or too distant for ordinary eyes. Children 
brought up in the country or at the sea-side, have 
a power of vision unknown to city children, with 
their limited range of observation. But it is not 
only necessary that the eyes should be able to 
make out the forms of distant or small objects, but 
that they should be quick to detect shades of color 
and delicacies of outline. The child should be 
stimulated and encouraged to make efforts in this 
direction. Here, also, there is room for the skill of 
the intelligent toy-maker, for toys can be made 
very useful educators. 

One of the forms of sensorial memory which it is 
most desirable to develope is that of objects seen, 
that is to say, the fixing in the thoughts, to be 
brought up before the mind's eye when wanted, the 
recollection of visual impressions. This embraces 
the memory of forms, of dimensions, of the rela- 
tions between various objects and between different 
parts of the same object, and of colors. When ap- 
plied to places it is what is known as local memory ; 
applied to the human face, it is the memory of 
physiognomy ; applied to objects, it is graphic or 
descriptive memory ; applied to colors, it is chro- 
matic memory. 

Local memory is sometimes developed to an ex- 



TRAINING OF THE SPECIAL SENSES. 32 1 

traordinary degree. It is only necessary for some 
persons to have once traversed a locality, a street, 
a city, in order to preserve of it a most minute and 
vivid recollection. This topographical memory is 
enjoyed by a number of the inferior animals ; the 
elephant, the dog, and the horse, for instance, are 
well-known as being capable of noticing a road 
taken and of returning by it, of recognising readily 
a place once seen, and of showing a tendency to 
stop of their own accord at places where they have 
been arrested or kept. This local memory, useful 
as it is to every one, is necessary to the painter 
who draws upon it for the elements of his artistic 
creations. 

The faculty of recollecting faces is a peculiar one, 
and possessed by different persons in vastly diffe- 
rent degrees. There are those who recognise inva- 
riably every face they have once seen, and who by 
a simple effort can at any time recall with the utmost 
distinctness the features of the absent. On the 
other hand, there are those so wanting in this spe- 
cial form of memory that they are constantly ex- 
posed to serious social inconveniences, and, for fear 
of failing in politeness, often salute perfect strangers. 
The ancient Greeks possessed to an extraordinary 
degree the power of seizing and retaining types of 
face and form ; it is to this, doubtless, that they 
owe, to a great extent, their unapproached excel- 
lence in sculpture and painting. 

Graphic or descriptive memory is that which 
photographs, as it were, upon the brain the visual 
impressions that objects have made upon the retina, 
in such a manner that the thought can reconstruct 



322 THE CHILD. 

them ideally. This, in particular, is the form of 
memory required by designers of all kinds, and, like 
the other forms of visual memory, is susceptible of 
education. The child is first taught to copy with 
his pencil and produce exact imitations of the objects 
about him. Then, little by little, he is to be taught 
in closing his eyes to reconstruct mentally the con- 
tours of objects, at first simple, then more compli- 
cated, and finally to penetrate into their details and 
give to the fictitious mental image all the relief of 
reality. This exercise not merely trains the child 
in correct observation, but quickly leads to the con- 
quest of descriptive memory. 

Chromatic memory, or the memory of colors, is a 
form of visual memory different from those we have 
enumerated. It is more difficult, perhaps, and 
technical than the others. The attention of the 
child should early be directed to the colors of 
natural and artificial objects, and he should be en- 
couraged to imitate them. 

But it is not our intention to go further into this 
important subject, the education of the sense of 
sight. Our space will not permit it. By these few 
elementary remarks, we have merely wished to re- 
mind parents that they can do much towards the 
development of this important faculty in their 
children. 

TO PREVENT NEAR-SIGHTEDNESS. 
Near-sightedness is, as we have said, greatly 
increasing. In Germany, this is particularly the 
case, and has led there to a careful study of the 
subject within the last few years. 



TRAINING OF THE SPECIAL SENSES. 323 

Near-sightedness, like most of the disorders of 
the eyesight, is to be traced to causes which act 
during childhood, and which causes are all entirely 
preventible. Imperfect lighting of rooms in which 
children study or play is one of the chief among 
these preventible causes. When the windows are 
improperly constructed or placed, or when the arti- 
ficial light is faulty in school-rooms, the book is 
naturally brought close to the eyes in order that it 
may be more easily read. The consequence of this 
is either that near-sightedness is quickly produced, 
or that the eyes soon become fatigued and perma- 
nently weakened. No less injurious is the effort 
to read ' between the lights ' or before the fire. 
School-books with too small type, and school-desks 
which are too low or too far from the seats, are the 
direct cause of much mischief to many young eyes. 
Let parents, therefore, see to it that the school- 
rooms to which they send their children are clearly 
and properly lighted, that the books which they 
study are printed in a bold, clear type, and that no 
reading or study is permitted by a flickering or a 
dim light, nor before a desk or table which for- 
bids a tolerably erect position of the head and 
shoulders. 

THE EDUCATION OF THE SENSE OF HEARING. 

The education of this sense is second only in 
importance to that of the sight. First, of all, atten- 
tion should be directed to the preservation of the 
health of the organ. 

Many cases of deafness among children originate 

x 2 



324 THE CHILD. 

in long standing diseases of the nose and throat ; 
others in obstinate skin affections ; while not a few 
are caused by a want of cleanliness, which permits 
of the accumulation of wax in the passage of the 
ear. 

The sensibility of the nerve which conveys im- 
pressions of sound from the ear to the brain can be 
greatly increased by exercise and training, when the 
organ is in a condition of health. It can be so 
highly developed that the ear will readily catch 
very feeble sounds. 

A learned physician has recently pointed out 
with some force that sufficient attention is not paid 
to the conformation of the pavilion of the ear. Upon 
this conformation much of the delicacy of hearing 
depends. The hats which children wear, usually 
compress and deform the pavilion. Physiologists 
have shown that it ought to make an angle of about 
thirty degrees with the skull, in order to best collect 
sonorous vibrations. This angle is very much di- 
minished by our artificial head-dresses, and to the 
detriment of acuteness of hearing. 

Can education do much for the improvement of 
hearing ? Everyday experience answers in the 
affirmative. There is an exercise which cannot be 
too highly commended to parents, which consists 
in inducing in play their children, even those very 
young, to detect from as far as they can faint and 
fading sounds. It is a game which amuses them 
much, and it is a pleasing sight to see the rivalry 
of several young children, each of whom with head 
bent forward, is earnestly trying to distinguish a 
receding sound longer than its fellows. A little 



HOME MANAGEMENT OF COMMON DISEASES. 325 

ingenuity will readily devise amusing and useful 
plays with this object in view. 

The training of the remaining special senses is of 
comparatively minor importance to that of those we 
have been considering, and need not detain us. We 
will only remind the reader of the wonderful adroit- 
ness and delicacy of touch possessed by the blind 
as an example of what this sense is capable of when 
educated. 

HOME MANAGEMENT OF SOME COMMON 
DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 

CROUP. 

Although this disease is said to be more severe 
in Europe than in our own country, and more fre- 
quent in our northern than in our southern States, 
most American mothers, in all parts of the country, 
know and dread its alarming and often fatal at- 
tacks. It is a disease of childhood, but not of early 
infancy, being rarely met with under the first or 
after the tenth year of life. 

Children who have once had this affection are 
very liable to another attack upon exposure to any 
of the causes which excite it. It has been noticed 
also that croup runs in certain families, and not 
unfrequently, children of a ruddy complexion and of 
a fleshy and apparently vigorous appearance are 
those most subject to it. 

Among the causes of croup, which should be 
specially guarded against by mothers of croupy 
children, are checking of the perspiration, sudden 
alterations in the dress, change of climate, and even 



326 THE CHILD. 

in some cases a residence at the sea-side. Croup also 
often follows measles, and at times is epidemic. 

The unmistakeable symptoms of croup quickly 
show themselves at the outset of the disease. Some- 
times a sore throat, a short, dry cough, and a slight 
harshness of breathing, usher in the affection ; in 
other instances, that which first attracts attention 
is hoarseness in the cry or tone of the voice, at- 
tended with, or quickly followed by, feverishness, 
thirst, and dulness, or fretfulness ; while in another 
class of cases the disease suddenly developes itself 
without any noticeable premonitory signs. In all 
these cases the characteristic symptoms of the 
disease commonly make their appearance at night. 
The child's sleep is disturbed by a peculiar clang- 
ing cough, which, when once heard, will ever after- 
wards be remembered and easily recognised. The 
skin becomes hot and dry, the breathing difficult, 
the cough more frequent, and the child is soon 
awakened, frightened, and struggling for breath. 
With flushed face and staring eyes, the little suf- 
ferer starts up, grasping the throat with the hand 
as if seeking to remove some encircling pressure 
which is choking it. Each drawing in of the breath 
is attended with a hissing sound, the redness of the 
face and neck increases, and speech becomes impos- 
sible. This attack may pass off in a few minutes, or 
be prolonged, with varying degrees of intensity, for 
an hour. Almost invariably, however, it is followed 
by a period of relief, in some instances so complete 
as to deceive the anxious relatives into the belief 
that the disease is over and the child safe. This false 
confidence is, unfortunately, generally soon rudely 



HOME MANAGEMENT OF COMMON DISEASES. 327 

dissipated by a return of the attack in all its first 
violence. 

The disease attains its height by the end of the 
second, or at the latest the close of the third day. 
The fever is now the hottest, the tongue becomes 
white, the face and forehead red and covered with 
perspiration, the lips at times purple, the veins of the 
neck and temples distended, the countenance dis- 
tressed, and the voice whispered or suppressed. 
The cough is now also most frequent and noisy ; 
its peculiar sound has been compared to that made 
by a fowl when caught in the hand. The thirst is 
great, but swallowing difficult. The child often 
inserts its fingers in the mouth as if trying to clutch 
something which closes the air passages. These 
symptoms may either increase to the rapid ex- 
haustion of the patient or take a favorable turn. 
One of the first evidences of the latter is a change 
in the character of the cough, which, although it 
may not lessen in force or frequency, becomes lower 
in tone, less dry, and finally moist. 

The treatment should be most prompt, active, 
and energetic. Few diseases require, for the safety 
of the patient, such quick and efficient aid at the 
outset. Prepare at once sufficient hot water for a 
bath, and make a fire in the room. In the mean- 
while, immerse the child's arms in some hot water ? 
and apply cloths, wrung thoroughly dry from it, to 
the throat. Give the child a teaspoonful of pow- 
dered alum in a little syrup, molasses and water, or 
honey. Repeat the dose in a quarter of an hour if 
full vomiting be not excited by the first teaspoon- 
ful. So soon as the warm bath is ready (the water 
28 



328 THE CHILD. # 

should have the temperature of 98 Fahrenheit), 
place the child in it, and keep up the heat of the 
bath by the occasional addition of hot water. 
Have hot towels in readiness to dry the skin com- 
pletely, and a warm blanket in which to wrap the 
patient. See that the temperature of the room is 
raised to about 66° Fahrenheit, and that it does 
not fall below this. Moisten the air by putting a 
kettle of boiling water on the fire and diffusing the 
steam from it by means of a long roll of paper 
fixed to the spout. 

The warm bath and the emetic will usually re- 
lieve the breathing ; but no matter how complete 
this relief may appear to be, nor how quietly 
the little one may sleep, it must be carefully 
watched all night, so that the first return of un- 
favorable symptoms may be promptly treated. 
In all instances also, however favorably the case 
may progress, the patient must be confined to bed 
for several days, and the temperature of the room, 
and the moisture of the air, carefully maintained, 
as directed for the first treatment of the attack. 
If the child has had previous attacks, or if the 
weather be cold and inclement, it should be kept 
in this warm moist atmosphere for two weeks. 
Were these precautions known and heeded we 
should have to lament fewer fatal cases of croup. 

f course in this, as in all other serious diseases, 
skilled medical advice should be secured as quickly 
as possible. We have given the above directions, 
not only for those so situated that they cannot 
secure medical aid, but also for all others, in order 
that no valuable time may be lost in commencing 



HOME MANAGEMENT OE COMMON DISEASES. 329 

the treatment, that the efforts of the physician may 
be intelligently seconded and carried out, and that 
the importance of promptness at the outset, and pro- 
longed care during convalescence, may be impressed 
upon every mother who consults these pages. 

HEAD COLDS. 

Young infants are very liable to take cold when 
being washed, or carried about the house into 
rooms and passages of different temperatures. This 
cold often shows itself by sneezing and " snuffles " 
in the nose. In a short time a discharge from the 
nostrils appears, the eyes become watery, and the 
voice sounds "through the nose." The skin is 
hotter than natural, and the infant cross. If the 
child be able to talk, it will complain of headache, 
some soreness in the limbs and back, and of a 
burning, uncomfortable feeling in the nose. These 
symptoms last for three or four days, when in mild 
ordinary cases they begin to disappear. After one 
or more attacks of this kind the child is very liable 
to a return on every slight exposure to cold. 

The treatment required in these cases is mild 
and simple, but must not be neglected. A warm 
bath should be taken at bed-time for a number of 
days ; the patient should be kept in an even tem- 
perature and out of draughts. The best relief to the 
distress in the nose, from which the child suffers, is 
afforded by dipping a hollow sponge in hot water, 
squeezing it nearly dry, and applying it over the 
nose and forehead. The common domestic prac- 
tice of greasing the nose is also beneficial. The 
wearing of a flannel cap until the disease is cured 



330 THE CHILD. 

is a remedy strongly recommended by the late Dr. 
Meigs. A flannel cap will also often prevent the 
recurrence of the complaint in those very subject 
to it. 

FITS. 

Infants and young children are much more liable 
to fits and convulsions than adults. The causes 
which excite them are numerous, and should be 
generally known, that they may be as far as possi- 
ble avoided. 

Many infants are born with a tendency to fits. 
The children of feeble parents, or of those who 
have married very early or very late in life, are apt 
to be afflicted with a predisposition to them. Great 
fright or severe shock received by the mother dur- 
ing the latter months of her pregnancy may give 
rise to convulsions in the child soon after birth. 

Pale, badly nourished, soft, flabby children, and 
those of a sensitive, nervous temperament, are more 
liable to fits than those who are ruddy and hardy. 
Hence we find convulsions more common and fatal 
among the poor and miserable than among the 'well- 
to-do ' and comfortable. City children are more sub- 
ject to the complaint than the country born and bred. 

Fits are very frequent among infants while teeth- 
ing. In such cases lancing the gum secures im- 
mediate relief. Another cause of fits, and one 
which every mother should know, is the giving of 
meat to the child before its teeth are cut. In such 
cases the attack is sudden, and often very severe. 
Children most affected in this way by animal food 
are those with water on the brain, and those of a 



HOME MANAGEMENT OF COMMON DISEASES. 33 1 

very delicate constitution. The juice or broth of 
meat is in some such instances sufficient to produce 
fits. The remedy consists in the institution of a milk 
diet. In all doubtful cases avoid a meat diet in 
any form, and watch the result. 

Strong mental emotions, such as fright, shame, 
or anger, may cause a fit in a child. A nurse in 
England threatened to throw a child out of the 
window if he did not stop crying ; the little boy 
fell at once into convulsions, from which he died. 

Among other known causes of fits are confine- 
ment to heated, badly ventilated rooms, tight band- 
aging, and sudden exposure to severe cold or heat. 

In treating of the influence of the mother's mind 
over the nursing child (p. 25 1), we mentioned a num- 
ber of instances of children thrown into convulsions 
by changes in the quality of the milk caused by 
the mental emotion of the mother. The import- 
ance of the subject induces us to quote here the 
corroborating remarks of Dr. Churchill, in the last 
edition of his standard work on diseases of chil- 
dren. ' During the first year of life, convulsions 
may not unfrequently be traced to the milk of the 
mother or nurse disagreeing with the infant, or 
having been disordered temporarily by fright, 
passion, or suffering. Soemmering mentions a 
curious case of a woman whose milk agreed with 
her own child, but caused convulsions in all others. 
M. Guersant relates the instance of a woman de- 
serted by her husband, and in her distress her 
infant had an attack each time it took the breast. 
Dr. Underwood mentions a mother who nursed 

her child immediately after witnessing a sudden 
28* 



332 THE CHILD. 

death ; the child was attacked by convulsions, after 
which it remained comatose for thirty-six hours, 
but ultimately recovered. Numerous cases are on 
record of convulsions supervening upon violent 
passion in the nurse. I have witnessed more than 
one case resulting from the mother suckling her 
child during a time of severe affliction and distress.' 

We deem it useless to describe a fit. Almost 
every one has seen it, and at once recognises it. 
We shall proceed, therefore, at once to the treatment. 

When a child is attacked with a fit the dress 
should be loosened, all tight bandages and pins 
removed, and plenty of fresh air admitted into the 
room. It should not be held upright in the arms, 
but placed in a lying position. A warm bath (that 
most useful remedy in so many of the ailments of 
children) should be speedily prepared, and the 
child immersed for a few minutes, then removed, 
dried, and wrapped in a blanket. A hot mustard 
foot-bath is also of service. The cause of the fit 
should be at once sought; for upon it will of course 
depend to a great extent the treatment required. 
If the child be teething, and the gums be found 
to be red and swollen, they should be lanced. If 
the child has eaten too much, or of improper food, 
an emetic should be given. A little mustard and 
salt mixed in a tumbler of warm water affords a 
read)', safe, and effectual emetic. 

The dashing of cold water upon the face will 
sometimes promptly end the fit. The application of 
powdered ice iu a bladder, or of cold water cloths 
to the head, is of service where the face is much 
flushed and the movements very violent. 



HOME MANAGEMENT OF COMMON DISEASES. 333 

Children subject to fits should live in a well 
warmed house. By this we do not mean that the 
rooms and hall ways should be kept hot, still less 
that they should be close and improperly ventilated. 
The temperature of the bed-room should not be 
lower than 70 degrees, and great care should be 
taken during cold weather to avoid chilling the 
child outdoors. 

Rubbing of the child's body once a day with 
good salad oil is an excellent and readily applied 
remedy in these cases. The little patients do not 
ordinarily object to it. As it is a procedure calcu- 
lated to improve the general health, we strongly 
recommend every mother whose child has frequent 
fits, to try it. 

The dress of the child should be warm, loose, 
and comfortable. Perfect quietness is important 
for a time after attacks. Do not excite the child 
by seeking to amuse it. Let it sleep as much as it 
will. 

In those cases in which a fit has been followed 
by weakness of the limbs, medical assistance will 
of course be procured. As a rule, recovery in such 
instances is slow, but, when properly directed, per- 
fect. Change of scene, country air, and exercise, 
friction of the body with a flesh-brush or salt 
towel, salt water baths, and electricity, are all valu- 
able agents towards cure. 

NOSE-BLEED. 

Bleeding from the nose may be produced by a 
blow or by over-exercise of the child at play. In 
either case the trouble is usually a trifling one. 



334 THE CHILD. 

Some children, however, are liable to attacks of 
nose-bleed coming on without any assignable 
causes. One of the consequences of scarlet fever 
and whooping cough is sometimes a tendency to 
repeated and serious spells of bleeding from the 
nose. 

The treatment in these cases consists in quieting 
the alarm of the child if it be frightened, and in 
applying cold water or pounded ice to the nose 
and forehead and to the back of the neck. It is 
because of its coldness that the key placed down 
the back, as so commonly advised in domestic 
practice, does good. 

An exaggerated idea of the amount of blood 
lost is often a cause of distress to parents. They 
forget that the child has been bleeding in a vessel 
of water, and that a very little blood darkly colors a 
large quantity of water. 

Bleeding from the nose is sometimes a favorable 
symptom, as when it occurs during a fever, or when 
in girls approaching womanhood it precedes the 
expected signs of puberty. It is an unfavorable 
symptom, however, in scrofulous children and in 
girls affected with green-sickness, as in these in- 
stances it aggravates the existing disorders. 

In those rare cases of protracted bleeding which 
resist the remedies we have mentioned, it may be 
necessary for the surgeon to plug the nostrils, both 
in front and at their opening into the throat. 

This extreme measure is fortunately scarcely 
ever called for, and can only be carried out by the 
physician. 



HOME MANA GEMENT OE COMMON DISEASES. 335 



WORMS. 

Children are often thought to have worms when 
entirely free from them. There is hardly a symp- 
tom of any disease which has not been supposed 
by some to be a sign of the presence of worms. A 
child suffering from some other complaint is, there- 
fore, not unfrequently dosed with vermifuges to its 
injury. We can give the mother one symptom of 
worms which is infallible. It is the only one upon 
which she can rely, namely, the detection of worms 
in the stools of the child. Until these expelled 
intruders are actually found she should be slow to 
believe that the child is thus affected, and still 
slower to give worm medicine. Before beginning 
treatment, let the mother wait until the need of it 
is made out by the result of the examination we 
have mentioned. 

The treatment of the ordinary worms to which 
children are subject is simple and usually speedily 
efficacious. Commence with a dose of Epsom salts, 
of magnesia, or of cream of tartar, as may be pre- 
ferred. The next day administer a vermifuge, of 
which the best and pleasantest is santonine. Obtain 
from the druggist three or four three-grain powders 
of this medicine. Give the half or the whole of one 
of these powders, according to the age of the child, 
at bed-time. The next morning administer a pur- 
gative dose of oil or salts. Repeat this treatment 
every other day until three doses of santonine have 
been taken. Or, from two to six grains, according 
to the age of the patient, may be dissolved in two 



336 THE CHILD. 

table-spoonsful of castor-oil, and a tea-spoonful 
given every hour until it operates. 

An excellent domestic remedy for worms, one 
which was a great favorite with the celebrated Dr. 
Rush of Philadelphia, is common salt. For a child 
two or three years old, the proper dose is a tea- 
spoonful mixed in a wineglassful of water. When 
the child can be got to take it in sufficient quantity, 
this remedy is a very efficient one. 

Most cases of supposed worms in children are 
best treated by regulating the diet, by attention to 
the air and exercise of the child, by warm baths, 
and by endeavoring to improve the appetite, the 
digestion, and the strength. The food should be 
plain and unirritating (bread, milk, rice, arrowroot, 
chicken, lamb or mutton broth, beef-tea, mutton 
chop, young chicken) ; the meals should be taken in 
smaller quantities than usual, and at regular inter- 
vals. Sweets and confectionery should be forbid- 
den, and but few vegetables permitted for awhile. 
A perseverance in this regimen for a short time will 
usually cure the little patient without the necessity 
of resorting to any vermifuge. 

Worms are most frequent between the ages of 
three and ten years. Girls are oftener affected than 
boys. A tendency to worms is hereditary. Cases 
occur more frequently during the spring and autumn 
than during the other seasons. A residence in cold, 
damp, unhealthy situations leads to their production 
in many instances. 



HOME MANAGEMENT OF COMMON DISEASES. HJ 

BED-WETTING. 

This troublesome disorder is not unfrequently 
met with in children — more especially boys — under 
twelve years of age. It is a mistake to suppose, as is 
done by some parents, that slothfulness or negligence 
is the invariable and only cause of this infirmity ; on 
this point Dr. Vogel says :— ' In most cases which 
I have observed, the children through their own 
sense of honor or on account of repeated punish- 
ments, had a lively interest in avoiding the accident, 
and yet were unable to do this without appropriate 
treatment pursued for months, and even years.' 
Dr. Tanner states : — ' Very frequently this affection 
is the consequence of bad habits ; being favored 
by the free use of fluids during the after part of 
the day, by exposure to cold in the night, and by 
lying on the back.' 

The presence of worms in the bowels is one of 
the causes of this annoying ailment, and they 
should be sought for in all cases. Stone in the 
bladder sometimes occasions the affection, but in 
such instances other symptoms will soon point to 
the true nature of the trouble. 

This subject is one of an importance which de- 
mands some attention from us in a work for parents. 
In the language of Dr. Vogel, ' the effects of this 
malady are unpleasant, for the psychical deve- 
lopment in particular suffers. The repeated punish- 
ments which these children undergo blunt their 
sense of honor considerably ; they become cowardly 
and deceitful, and have no personal spirit. If great 
and expensive cleanliness is not practised, the bed, 

Y 



338 THE CHILD. 

and even the whole room, acquires a urinous odor, 
which contaminates the atmosphere and begets 
conditions by no means favorable to healthy growth. 
Such children may be ultimately attacked by indo- 
lent ulcers on the nates and lower extremities, the 
results of urinous excoriations.' 

The only symptom ordinarily present is that the 
child towards morning or in the middle of the night 
wets the bed without waking. This may happen 
several times during the sleep, and recur every 
night. In some cases the act takes place only every 
other night, but it is rare that there is an interval of 
more than one night. 

The cause of this failing is sometimes very 
simple and one easily remedied ; for it is often the 
result of neglecting to take young children up once 
during the many hours they require for sleep. By 
attention to this matter and to the diet, the habit 
may be speedily broken. Unfortunately most cases 
are not so quickly amenable to treatment. 

In the treatment of this infirmity, corporal pun- 
ishment should not be thought of. It is useless, 
cruel, and unnatural. The child might as well be 
punished because it squints or has club-foot. 

Care must be taken to see that the little patient 
eats or drinks nothing for several hours before bed- 
time. The child should also be awakened a little 
before midnight, and at a very early hour in the 
morning, and made to empty its bladder. It is of 
great importance to get the child to sleep upon its 
side or face, as lying upon the back is sure to 
increase the trouble. Indeed, it is frequently ob- 
served that the child always remains clean when it 



HOME MANAGEMENT OF COMMON DISEASES. 339 

is prevented from turning upon its back during 
sleep. The difficulty lies in the prevention. The 
plan of tying a cloth or towel around the child with 
a knot over the spinal column, to awaken it by the 
pain when it rolls over upon the back, so often pro- 
posed, seems good advice easily followed. But 
practically it fails, as it is impossible, without 
making the bandage too tight, to keep it in place. 
The benefit which, in some instances, has followed 
the employment of a succession of small blisters 
directly over the lower part of the spinal column, is 
doubtless due to their forcing the child to sleep 
upon the face or side. The remedy is somewhat 
a painful one, but should be tried in obstinate 
cases. 

The child's general health, if enfeebled, should 
be improved by cold baths, bitter tonics, and if 
possible a change of air. In no case should any 
mechanical means be employed to arrest the in- 
firmity. Serious and even fatal results have fol- 
lowed such attempts. 

If the precautions and simple remedies we have 
mentioned fail, recourse must be had to the family 
physician. The drugs which are of benefit are too 
powerful to be entrusted to any other hands. The 
hygienic method of cure we have pointed out will, 
if instituted early, be effectual in all excepting very 
obstinate cases, which latter indeed sometimes re- 
sist for a long time the best efforts of medical skill. 

LOOSENESS OF THE BOWELS. 
Children under one year of age should have two 
movements of the bowels in the twenty-four hours, 



29 



Y 2 



340 THE CHILD. 

and those from one to three years at least one stool 
a day. 

A slight attack of looseness is often beneficial if 
it passes away within a day or two. It is easy, 
however, for such an attack to become hurtful, 
especially if the food be improper, or the weather 
warm. A looseness which is of no consequence in 
the winter may well excite uneasiness during the 
summer months. 

Diarrhoea in a healthy child is ordinarily preceded 
by vomiting. If the diarrhoea persist long, the little 
patient is much prostrated by it, and rapidly re- 
duced in flesh. Such an attack should never, there- 
fore, be neglected. 

In the case of an infant not weaned, it should be 
removed from the breast for half a day or more, 
that the stomach may have little or nothing to do. 
Barley or rice water, or ordinary water, may be 
given in small quantities at a time to relieve the 
thirst. This in many cases will be all the treatment 
required. 

In the case of an elder child, all meat and vege- 
tables should be at once forbidden, and the only 
food allowed for a day or two must be rice and 
milk, arrowroot, or milk and water. 

The dose of castor oil which is so frequently 
given by nurses in these cases under the impression 
that the oil is 'healing,' is only of service when 
the diarrhoea has been caused by food of improper 
quality or quantity. It then aids nature in her 
efforts to get rid of the offending matter, which by 
its irritation is doing the mischief. In such in- 
stances one dose of the oil is quite sufficient. It 



HOME MANAGEMENT OF COMMON DISEASES. 34 1 

has no 'healing' virtues, and should not be re- 
peated from day to day. 

Children who are teething are frequently affected 
with looseness. A warm bath every evening, 
and attention to the gums, will be ordinarily all 
that is required in these cases, at least during 
the cold months. It is of the utmost importance, 
however, during the summer that such patients, 
if living in the city, should be at once removed 
into the country ; otherwise their lives are in 
danger. 

Looseness of the bowels in children is usually 
best treated by careful management of the clothing 
and diet, by attention to all that affects the health, 
and by avoiding as much as possible the adminis- 
tration of medicines. No case should be allowed, 
however, to run on without seeking competent 
medical advice. 

An excellent remedy for the diarrhoea of children 
is the subnitrate of bismuth. 

This medicine may be disguised in the food, as 
in a case narrated by Dr. Inmann. A lad about 
ten years old was brought to him by an aunt, who 
stated that the boy suffered much from diarrhoea, 
and was emaciating visibly ; that he would not try 
any domestic remedy, was an obstinate fellow, and 
determined to take no medicine. After sending 
the lad to another room the doctor recommended 
the lady to get some white bismuth and give it to 
the cook, telling her to mix a large pinch of it with 
some butter, and to send in the bread and butter 
so arranged that the lady would know which was 
for the boy. This was done. The lad was duly 



342 THE CHILD. 

drugged without his knowledge, and the diarrhoea 
stopped in two days. 

INDIGESTION. 

Infants and young children suffer often from in- 
digestion, or dyspepsia, as well as adults. One of the 
most frequent signs of this disorder is vomiting. 
But every infant which throws up its milk is not 
suffering from indigestion. Vomiting is sometimes 
a sign of health, and shows that the stomach is 
vigorous enough to free itself promptly from excess 
of food. The child is thus saved from the effects 
of over-feeding. The obvious remedy is to diminish 
the quantity of milk taken at each nursing or meal. 

But vomiting from over-feeding is very different 
from that caused by irritation of the stomach, 
which causes it to reject proper food. The com- 
mon sense of the mother will enable her easily to 
distinguish between the two sorts. In the former, 
the child remains cheerful, happy, and well nour- 
ished, scarcely changing countenance even while 
the superabundant milk is being returned from its 
stomach. In the latter, the child soon becomes 
pale, feeble, and distressed looking. Over-feeding, 
if persisted in, may occasion indigestion. 

Indigestion during the first year of life shows 
itself by languor, palor, and evident discomfort. 
The child wishes to be constantly at the breast, 
and suckles eagerly, but vomits the milk shortly 
after, usually curdled. The bowels are either con- 
stipated or too loose. The most prominent and 
often the only symptoms are this alternation of 
vomiting and an eager desire to take the breast, 



HOME MANAGEMENT OF COMMON DISEASES. 343 

associated with loss of flesh and strength. The 
child is evidently not nourished by the food it 
takes, and if relief be not afforded it sinks, and 
dies from starvation in the course of a month or 
two. 

Children who are weaned abruptly ', and at a very 
early period, are liable to a serious form of indiges- 
tion, which may come on in a few days after wean- 
ing, or not for several weeks. 

Older children are liable to slight attacks of 
indigestion, which are attended with vomiting or 
purging, or both, for a few days, when the stomach 
recovers its health. In some cases, however, the 
derangement continues longer, the child then losing 
its appetite, and suffering from colic, and becoming 
fretful, pale, and weak. The breath becomes sour, 
and the passages green. Such cases require careful 
watching and treatment, especially during the hot 
weather of the summer. 

In infants at the breast indigestion is usually 
caused by giving the breast too often or by an 
excess or change in the quality of the milk. Errors 
in diet on the part of the mother, and other faults 
which we have pointed out in our chapter on nurs- 
ing, are the most frequent causes of this ailment. 
In children who are weaned the causes are almost 
invariably improper food or food taken too fre- 
quently, or in too large quantities. The hint should 
be taken when a child rejects its food, to change it, 
or give it less. Instead of this, too frequently the 
child is urged to take more, and thus derange the 
stomach. 

The treatment of indigestion in childhood is 



344 THE CHILD. 

usually easy and satisfactory. The first thing is 
to look to and regulate the quantity and quality of 
the food. It it be due to excess of food, this is 
easily remedied. If due to improper quality, change 
it promptly. When the mother's health is such 
that her milk is found to frequently or constantly 
disagree with her child, a suitable wet-nurse must 
be procured. 

In most cases the attack is mild, and readily 
yields to a few hours' abstinence from food. As it 
often happens, especially in artificially-fed infants, 
that the gastric juice is more acid than it should be, 
great benefit is derived from the use of precipitated 
chalk or carbonate of soda. A few grains of either 
of these, given several ttmes a day for a few days, 
will be found to effect a surprising change and alone 
restore the appetite and digestion. 

In older children an attack of indigestion should 
be the signal for putting them upon a simpler and 
more restricted diet for a time. Milk, eggs, arrow- 
root, tapioca, sago, panada, &c, are better than 
animal food. If the child becomes much weakened, 
jellies, chicken, lamb, mutton, or oyster broth, beef 
tea, or wine whey, should be given to check the 
tendency to exhaustion. 

We repeat, that most cases of indigestion in 
infants and children yield promptly to an immediate 
change in the diet, without medicine. 

HINTS ON HOME GOVERNMENT. 

On this subject, as it may be regarded as outside 
of our domain of hygiene, we have but few words 
to say. We wish, however, in the interests of 



HOME GOVERNMENT. 345 

medicine and hygiene, to insist upon the necessity 
of training children to prompt, implicit obedience 
to the parental voice. As physicians, we have seen 
the spoilt, undisciplined child, when sick, rebellious 
alike to persuasion and command, refusing food and 
medicine, revolting against the slightest examina- 
tion, and by its violence and capriciousness, con- 
verting a slight illness into a dangerous one. For a 
child unaccustomed to obedience there is no proper 
treatment possible when sick; nor when well is there 
any proper care possible for the preservation of 
the health. What it wants, and not what it ought to 
have, is given it, and every one knows that a child's 
instincts are no guide to health. With health, hap- 
piness is sacrificed also. There is no surer way of 
making a child miserable than by accustoming it 
to obtain all it wishes, and to encounter no will 
but its own. Its desires grow by what they feed 
upon. As a French writer on education has well 
expressed it : 'At first it will want the cane you 
hold in your hand, then your watch, then the bird 
it sees flying in the air, and then the star twinkling 
overhead. How, short of omnipotence, is it pos- 
sible to gratify its ever-growing wants ? ' Accustom 
the child to hear ' no ' and ' must,' but let these 
hard words be softened by voice and manner — an 
art in which every true mother excels. 

But, on the other hand, do not harass the child 
by needless restrictions, nor worry it by excess of 
management. We desire to call attention here to 
the words of an eminent English divine and learned 
writer, Archbishop Whately : — 

' Most carefully should we avoid the error which 



34-6 THE CHILD. 

some parents, not (otherwise) deficient in good 
sense commit, of imposing gratuitous restrictions 
and privations, and purposely inflicting needless 
disappointments, for the purpose of inuring chil- 
dren to the pains and troubles they will meet with 
in after life. Yes ; be assured they will meet with 
quite enough in every portion of life, including 
childhood, without your strewing their paths with 
thorns of your own providing. And often enough 
you will have to limit their amusements for the 
sake of needful study, to restrain their appetites 
for the sake of health, to chastise them for faults, 
and in various ways to inflict pain or privations for 
the sake of avoiding some greater evils. Let this 
always be explained to them whenever it is possible 
to do so ; and endeavor in all cases to make them 
look on the parent as never the voluntary giver of 
anything but good. To any hardships which they 
are convinced you inflict reluctantly, and to those 
which occur through the dispensation of the All- 
wise, they will more easily be trained to submit 
with a good grace, than to any gratuitous sufferings 
devised for them by fallible man. To raise hopes 
on purpose to produce disappointment, to give 
provocation merely to exercise the temper, and, in 
short, to inflict pain of any kind, merely as a train- 
ing for patience and fortitude — this is a kind of 
discipline which man should not presume to at- 
tempt. If such trials prove a discipline not so much 
of cheerful fortitude as of resentful aversion and 
suspicious distrust of the parent as a capricious 
tyrant, you will have only yourself to thank for the 
result.' 



HOME GOVERNMENT. 347 

It is a matter of common observation that those 
who complain of their fortune and lot in life have 
often to complain only of their own conduct. The 
same is true of those who complain of their chil- 
dren. They have themselves only to blame in 
each case. 

Parents who do not appreciate the responsi- 
bilities of their position usually err on the side of 
over-indulgence to their children ; on the contrary, 
those fully alive to the importance of home dis- 
cipline often err on the side of over-regulation. 
To the latter, we commend the reply of an old 
lady to the anxious inquiry made by the mother of 
a too rigorously disciplined child as to what course 
should be pursued, ' I recommend, my dear, a 
little wholesome neglect' 

Lessons of truthfulness ; of fortitude in bearing 
pain and disappointment ; of the duty of right 
doing, because it is right and not because it is the 
best policy ; of frugality and industry ; of self- 
denial, contentment, and charity, should be early 
impressed upon the plastic mind of infancy. We 
wish also, in this connection, to quote the words of 
a wise physician and observer of men, that ' the 
little child who is brought up to repeat short and 
simple prayers at his mother's knees, has a rule of 
conduct thereby instilled into him which will pro- 
bably never be forgotten ; and, in after life he may 
not only look back to these beginnings with feelings 
of reverence and love, but the recollection of them 
may serve to strengthen him in some good resolu- 
tion, and help him to resist many a powerful 
temptation.' 



34-8 THE CHILD. 

We have had occasion frequently in various 
parts of this work to point out the intimate rela- 
tions which exist between the physical and mental 
nature of parents and their offspring. Like 
parent, like child. The same close connection and 
sympathy extends to the moral and religious 
character ; hence that direction and training which 
relies largely upon the force of parental example is 
the most effective method of home government. 
Virtuous precepts, or rigidly enforced rules of con- 
duct, avail little unless the parent keeps the path 
to which he points the child. 

'Well, upon my word, Mrs. Primrose, you have 
the handsomest children in the whole country.' 
' Ah ! neighbor,' replied the wife of the Vicar of 
Wakefield, ' they are as heaven made them — hand- 
some enough if they be good enough — handsome is 
that handsome does.' 

IS THE RACE DEGENERATING ? 

This is a question which peplexes some minds in 
our times. A German author of note has recently 
written a volume to prove that each generation is 
feebler than the preceding. Old physicians say that 
in their youth diseases of exhaustion were rarer 
than now-a-days. For this our habits of life, the 
pressure on our nervous systems, the prevalence of 
hereditary diseases, and the excessive use of nar- 
cotics and stimulants, are held responsible. ' The 
fathers,' say these croakers, ' have eaten sour grapes, 
and the children's teeth are set on edge.' 

We attach little weight to these gloomy views. 
There are plenty of facts on the other side. The 



IS THE RACE DEGENERATING? 349 

suits of old armour still preserved in our museums 
prove that, as a rule, we have slightly gained in 
weight and size. Tables of life insurance com- 
panies and reports of statistics show that the 
average length of human life is greater than it ever 
was. Dr. Charles D. Meigs used to state in his 
lectures that the size of the head of American in- 
fants at birth is somewhat greater than in the Old 
World. 

That there are more numerous diseases than 
formerly, is not true ; but it is true that we know 
more, for we have learned to detect them more 
readily and to examine them more minutely. This 
is especially true of such as are peculiar to women. 
Within the last ten or twenty years so much that 
is of sovereign importance has been contributed to 
this department of medical science, that it is hardly 
possible for one to become an expert in it unless he 
gives it his whole attention. 

To avoid the tendency to debilitated frames and 
chronic diseases, woman should therefore learn not 
only the laws of her own physical life, but the re- 
lations in which she stands to the other sex. Thus 
she can guard her own health, and preserve her off- 
spring from degeneracy. It is only by enlighten- 
ment, and the extension of knowledge on the topics 
relating to soundness of body and mind, that we 
can found rational hopes of a permanent and wide- 
spread improvement of the race. 

Some have maintained, not understanding the 
bearing of the facts, that such degeneracy is more 
conspicuous in the frame of woman than anywhere 
else. They quote the narratives of travellers, who 



350 THE CHILD. 

describe with what fortitude — we might almost say 
with what indifference — the Indian women, and 
those of other savage races, bear the pangs of 
childbirth, and how little the ordeal weakens them. 
A squaw will turn aside for an hour or two when 
on the march, bear a child, wash it in some stream, 
bind it on the top of her load, and shouldering both, 
quietly rejoin the vagrant troop. Our artificial life 
seems indeed, in this respect, to be to blame ; but 
if we look closer, we can learn that these wild 
women often perish alone, that they are rarely fer- 
tile, that unnatural labors are not unknown, and 
that the average duration of their life is decidedly 
less than among the females in civilised States. 



HEALTH 
IN MARRIAGE. 



THE PERILS OF MATERNITY. 

IN the early part of this work we quoted some 
authorities to show that those women who 
choose single life as their portion do not escape the 
ills of existence, nor do they protract their days, 
but, on the contrary, as shown by extensive statis- 
tics, are more prone to affections of the mind, and 
die earlier. While, therefore, nature thus rewards 
those who fulfil the functions of their being, by 
taking part in the mysterious processes of repro- 
duction, and perpetuating the drama of existence, 
it is true also that she associates these privileges 
with certain deprivations and suffering. We do not 
wish to throw around the married state any charms 
which are not its own. Rather is it our aim to por- 
tray with absolute, and therefore instructive, fidelity 
all that this condition offers of unfavorable as well 
as favorable aspects. 

Let us say at once, maternity has its perils, — 
perils as peculiar and as inevitable as those which 
pertain to single life. Our present purpose is to 
mention these, and by stating their nature and what 

are their causes, so far as known, to put married 
30 



3 $2 HEALTH IN MARRIAGE. 

women on their guard against them. Some are 
almost trifling, at least not involving danger to life; 
others most harassing to the sufferer and to her 
friends. 

We shall now consider the principal diseases to 
which married women are exposed from pregnancy, 
from childbirth, and from nursing. 

DISEASES OF PREGNANCY. 

In treating of pregnancy we have pointed out 
that it was a healthy and happy condition to most 
women. The exceptional cases are mainly those 
in which the health is injured by mental trouble or 
anxiety. Thus the young and delicate girl newly 
married is full of vague alarms in regard to the 
pains and dangers of her untried path to maternity. 
She frets herself and embitters her life during those 
months in which tranquillity is of the utmost im- 
portance. Is it surprising, then, that her health 
should be disordered, and that she should suffer 
from some of the diseases incident to the pregnant 
state ? 

Again, the mother of a large family, but the 
mistress of a small income, is distressed by the 
thought of additional expense, which it seems to 
her, particularly in her nervous state, impossible to 
meet. This condition of protracted anxiety is ill 
fitted to enable her to resist any tendency to dis- 
ease to w r hich she may be exposed. Indeed, pro- 
longed vexation from these and other causes not 
unfrequently tend to puerperal mania (a disease of 
which we shall shortly have something to say), or 
to some other nervous affection. 



DISEASES OF PREGNANCY. 353 

The wife during pregnancy should therefore be 
treated with unusual kindness by those about her, 
and every attempt made to soften her lot. The 
erroneous impression prevails among some that the 
pregnant wife should enure herself to toil and 
hardship. This notion is doubtless due to the 
observation that domestic animals that are sub- 
jected to a life of labor bring forth their young 
with little suffering. 'The cow in the country 
farm, living unfettered in the meadow until the day 
of calving, has in general a safe and easy labor. 
The poor beast, on the contrary, which is kept in a 
town dairy, has a time so incredibly dangerous that 
the proprietor generally sells off his stock every 
year, and replaces it with cows in calf ; such cows 
not being put into the stalls till within six or eight 
days of the expected period of labor. The deduc- 
tion from this is that an artificial mode of life — a 
life maintained by improper food, and without a 
sufficient supply of pure air, or a due amount of 
exercise — has a most deleterious influence upon 
the process of labor ; and not that a toilsome exis- 
tence, embittered with all the pains and anxieties of 
poverty, gives comparative immunity from danger 
in the hour of child-birth.' One of the discomforts 
of pregnancy is — 

MORNING SICKNESS. 

This affection, when confined, as is usually the 
case, to the morning and early part of the day, 
rarely requires much medical care. Its absence, 
which, as we have said, is a frequent cause of mis- 
carriage, is more to be regretted than its presence 

z 



354 HEALTH IN MARRIAGE. 

especially as it is apt to be replaced by more serious 
troubles. 

Relief will be afforded by washing the face and 
hands in cold water, and taking a cup of milk or a 
little coffee and a biscuit or sandwich, before rais- 
ing the head from the pillow in the morning, re- 
maining in bed about a quarter of an hour after 
this early meal ; then dressing quickly, and imme- 
diately going out for a half-hour's walk. Rest in a 
half-recumbent posture during the day, particularly 
after meals, is beneficial. The affection is mostly 
a nervous one, and is best combated by eating. 
The food should be plain and unirritating, but 
nutritious, and should be taken frequently, in small 
quantities at a time. 

When the nausea and vomiting are excessive, 
and continue during the day, there is generally 
some disordered condition of the digestive ap- 
paratus. 

This may be corrected by taking at night a tea- 
spoonful of the confection of senna, a pleasant 
preparation of this ordinarily disagreeable medi- 
cine, and by drinking three times a day, before 
each meal, a wine-glassful of a tea made with 
columbo. Half an ounce of powdered columbo 
should be added, for this purpose, to a pint of boil- 
ing water. 

Dr. John H. Griscom of New York recommends 
the bromide of potassium, which is a harmless 
medicine for domestic practice, as affording the 
most useful means of arresting the nausea attendant 
on pregnancy. 

The following prescription may be compounded 



DISEASES OF PREGNANCY. 355 

by any druggist, and will often be found very effec- 
tive : 

Take of Bromide of Potassium, two drachms, 
,, Cinnamon water, three fluid ounces. 

Of this a dessert spoonful may be taken two or 
three times a day. It may be used with confidence 
as an entirely safe and harmless remedy in this 
troublesome affection. 

A prescription frequently ordered for the nausea 
of pregnancy by the late distinguished Dr. Meigs, , 
consisted of equal parts of sweet tincture of rhubarb 
and compound tincture of gentian — a dessert spoon- 
ful to be taken after meals. 

Pain in the abdomen, caused by the distension of 
its walls, may be relieved by the application of 
equal parts of sweet oil and laudanum. 

Another common and annoying, but rarely dan- 
gerous, trouble during pregnancy is — - 

VARICOSE VEINS. 

The veins of "the legs become distended, knotted, 
and painful. Women who have borne a number of 
children suffer most from this affection. It seldom 
attacks those passing through their first pregnan- 
cies. It ordinarily first shows itself during the 
second pregnancy, and becomes rapidly worse dur- 
ing the third or fourth. 

Although it is difficult to cure this disease during 

the continuance of the pregnancy, much can be 

done to prevent its occurrence, and to relieve it 

when present. Tight garters worn below the knee, 

and closely laced corsets, tend to cause and in- 
30* z 2 



356 HEALTH IN MARRIAGE. 

crease this swollen condition of the veins. Neither 
should be used during pregnancy. 

Relief is best afforded to the suffering parts by 
means of a well-made and adjusted elastic stocking, 
which may be readily procured from a druggist or 
surgical instrument maker. In severe cases it 
may be necessary for the patient to keep herself as 
much as possible in the recumbent position on the 
bed or sofa. In all cases the feet should be sup- 
ported when seated, so as to keep the blood from 
further distending the already swollen veins. 

PILES. 

That painful condition of the veins of the lower 
bowel known as haemorrhoids, or piles, is a not un- 
frequent annoyance to pregnant women. Some- 
times it is caused by prolonged constipation. 
During the period of pregnancy, therefore, consti- 
pation should be guarded against. 

Ordinarily the piles are small, and of little con- 
sequence beyond the slight uneasiness they occa- 
sion. The trifling loss of blood from them is of no 
account, and often beneficial. The case is different, 
however, when the piles are large and painful, and 
give rise to much pain and copious bleeding. They 
then require prompt treatment. 

In the treatment of piles the first point to be 
aimed at is to keep the bowels moderately open. It 
must not be forgotten, however, that during preg- 
nancy only the mildest of purgatives are ever to be 
given. Castor oil, although a disagreeable, is a 
most excellent prescription in these cases. A small 
dose, repeated when necessary, will be found to act 



DISEASES OF PREGNANCY. 357 

most kindly. If this remedy be too repugnant to 
the patient, small quantities of citrate of magnesia, 
or of cream of tartar, or of some of the natural 
mineral waters, may be employed. Small injec- 
tions of luke-warm water are also of great service, 
and may be tried instead of laxatives. 

After every movement the parts should be well 
sponged with cold water, and an ointment of galls 
and opium, procured from the druggist, applied. 

If the parts become very much inflamed, warm 
poultices or hot chamomile solutions should be 
used, and the patient kept in bed until the inflam- 
mation subsides. 

No attempt is to be made to effect the radical 
cure of piles during pregnancy. Any such attempt, 
besides being dangerous, is unnecessary, for the 
piles usually disappear of their own accord after 
the confinement. Every effort to make the sufferer 
more comfortable in the manner we have suggested 
is, however, right and safe. 



DIARRHCEA. 

Some women always suffer irom looseness of the 
bowels during pregnancy ; others are very liable to 
attacks of it during this period, either coming on 
without any assignable cause or easily excited by 
any slight indiscretion in eating. In many instances 
these attacks alternate with constipation or with 
morning sickness. 

The diarrhoea, if at all severe or prolonged, should 
not be allowed to go on unchecked, for it quickly 
weakens the patient and predisposes her to abor- 



35 8 HEALTH IN MARRIAGE. 

tion. The foetus is especially endangered when 
the passages are attended with much bearing-down 
pain. In some exceptional cases, however, a slight 
diarrhoea seems to be beneficial, for every attempt 
to remove it appears to do harm; but these in- 
stances are very rare. 

The treatment required is a simple, and must be a 
cautious one. Ordinarily no medicine will be needed. 
If the patient will merely confine herself to milk 
and arrowroot and rice for twenty-four hours a cure 
will be effected in mild cases. When it is apparent 
that the attack has been caused by improper food, 
a tablespoonful of castor-oil or a teaspoonful or two 
of tincture of rhubarb will remove the offending 
material in the bowels, upon the presence of which 
the diarrhoea depends. A small injection of a tea- 
spoonful of rice water and thirty or forty drops of 
laudanum will often speedily arrest the excessive 
discharges, and relieve the pain. 

CONSTIPATION. 

No woman while pregnant should allow several 
days to elapse without a movement from the bowels. 
The symptoms of constipation, slight at the outset, 
soon cause great inconvenience. Among the effects, 
which, sooner or later, show themselves, may be 
feverishness, sleeplessness, headache, distressing 
dreams, sickness at the stomach, severe bearing- 
down pains, and piles. 

Medicines are rarely required in the treatment of 
constipation, and the pregnant woman should never 
take an active purgative, excepting under medical 
advice. Outdoor exercise and regularity in solicit- 



DISEASES OF PREGNANCY. 359 

ing nature's calls, together with a change in the 
diet, will usually have the desired effect. Brown 
bread, wheaten grits, oatmeal gruel, ripe fruits, 
fresh vegetables, stewed prunes, or prunes soaked 
in olive oil, baked apples, figs, tamarinds, honey, 
and currant jelly are all laxative articles which 
should be tried. 

In some instances a tumbler of cold water drunk 
the last thing at night, and another the first thing in 
the morning, will act in a most satisfactory manner. 
If the constipation should resist these safe . and 
homely remedies, which will rarely be found the 
case, then medical assistance should be called in. 
On no account should the wife herself, or in accord- 
ance with the counsel of any non-medical friend, 
resort to purgative drugs. 

COUGH. 

A troublesome cough sometimes affects delicate, 
nervous women during the early months of preg- 
nancy. If it be not very frequent nor severe, it 
requires no attention, as it will pass away of itself 
in a short time. When, however, it disturbs the 
sleep at night, renders the patient anxious, and 
causes headache and weariness, it is time to do 
something for it. It may, indeed, be so violent as 
to threaten abortion on account of the forcible con- 
cussion of the abdomen it produces. 

A teaspoonful of paregoric occasionally repeated 
during the day will be found a most efficient sooth- 
ing remedy. 



360 HEALTH IN MARRIAGE. 



WAKEFULNESS. 

Sleeplessness, always distressing, is particularly 
so to pregnant women. If prolonged, it leads to 
serious consequences. It should receive, therefore, 
the most prompt attention. 

The causes of sleeplessness during pregnancy are 
numerous. Dyspepsia is one of them. Whenever 
indigestion is present the diet should be plain and 
simple, and everything avoided which produces 
heartburn, sourness, or flatulency. It is important 
also not to take tea or coffee late in the afternoon 
or evening — a late cup of either being a frequent 
cause in itself of sleeplessness. 

Sometimes the reason for the wakefulness will be 
found in a want of exercise or too constant confine- 
ment to closely-heated rooms. Or, it may be that 
exciting novels are read late in the evening. Per- 
haps the evening meal is too heavy and taken too 
late. 

The treatment of sleeplessness consists first, of 
course, in the removal of the apparent cause. The 
patient should have a regular hour for retiring, 
which should be an early one. The bed-room 
should be quiet, well ventilated, and slightly warmed. 
The bed coverings must not be too heavy nor the 
pillows too high. 

A warm bath of the temperature of 90 to 96 
degrees Fahrenheit, taken just before going to bed, 
often invites sleep. A rapid sponging of the body 
with warm water may have the same effect. A 
tumbler of cold water, when the .skin is hot and 



DISEASES OF CHILDBED. $6l 

dry, swallowed at bed-time, sometimes affords re- 
lief. If the bowels are constipated relief should be 
sought in the manner we have just mentioned in 
speaking of constipation. 

When there is nervous excitement at night, and 
the means we have advised fail to propitiate 
' nature's soft nurse,' there is a sedative medicine 
which may be used with safety and effect — it is 
bromide of potassium. The same proportion which 
we have given for the treatment of morning sick- 
ness (see page 355) may be now used. Have the 
three-ounce mixture put up by the druggist, and 
take a dessertspoonful or a tablespoonful just before 
bed-time. It frequently acts almost as if by magic. 
On no account should recourse be had to opiates or 
dangerous sedative drugs. 

DISEASES OF CHILDBED. 

Childbirth being a healthful physiological con- 
dition, is usually neither attended nor followed by 
mischievous results. Occasionally, however, the 
mother suffers in consequence of the prolonged or 
difficult character of her labor. The longer the 
labor the greater the danger to both mother and 
child. Thus child-birth pangs prolonged beyond 
twenty-four or thirty-six hours are much more apt 
to be attended with danger or followed by disease 
than those terminated within a few hours. 

The following aphorisms were laid down by the 
late distinguished Professor James Y. Simpson, 
namely : — 

The mother is more liable to suffer under diseases 
of the womb after long than after short labors. 



362 HEALTH IN MARRIAGE. 

The child for some time after birth is more liable to 
disease and death, in proportion as the labor has 
been longer in its duration. First labors are longer 
in duration than subsequent ones, and in a propor- 
tionate degree more complicated and dangerous to 
mother and child. Male births are longer in dura- 
tion than female births, and in a proportionate de- 
gree more complicated and dangerous to mother 
and child. 

Many tedious confinements, however, are happily- 
terminated without the slightest injury to mother 
or child. Whenever the labor has been unusually 
prolonged, unusual care and caution should be 
exercised in the treatment of the mother and 
infant for many weeks after the event. 

One of the most distressing affections to which 
women are exposed from childbirth is 

PUERPERAL MANIA. 

This is a variety of insanity which attacks some 
women shortly after childbirth, or at the period of 
weaning a child. The period of attack is uncer- 
tain, as it may manifest itself first in a very few 
days, or not for some months after the confinement; 
Its duration is likewise very variable. In most 
instances a few weeks restore the patient to herself ; 
but there are many cases where judicious treatment 
for months is required, and there are a few where 
the mental alienation is permanent, and the wife 
and mother is never restored to her sanity. 

The question has been much discussed, Whether 
such a condition is to be imputed to a hereditary 
tendency to insanity in the family, and also whether 



DISEASES OF CHILDBED. 363 

a mother who has had such an attack is liable to 
transmit to her children, male or female, any greater 
liability to mental disease. We are well aware what 
deep importance the answers to these inquiries have 
to many a parent ; and in forming our replies, we 
are guided not only by our own experience, but by 
the recorded opinion of those members of our pro- 
fession who have given the subject close and earnest 
attention. To the first query, the reply must be 
made, that in one-half, or nearly one-half, of the 
cases of this variety of insanity there is traceable a 
hereditary tendency to aberration of mind. Usually 
one or more of the direct progenitors, or of the near 
relatives of the patient, will be found to have mani- 
fested unmistakeable marks of unsoundness of mind. 
In the remaining one-half cases no such tendency 
can be traced, and in these it must be presumed 
that the mania is a purely local and temporary dis- 
order of the brain. The incurable cases are usually 
found in the first class of patients, as we might 
naturally expect. 

The likelihood of the children, in turn, inheriting 
any such predisposition, depends on the answer to 
the inquiry we first put. If the mania itself is the 
appearance of a family malady, then the chances 
are that it will pass downward with other trans- 
missible qualities. But if the mania arise from 
causes which are transitory, then there is no ground 
for alarm. 

An inquiry still more frequently put to the phy- 
sician by the husband and by the patient herself 
after recovery, is, Whether an attack at one con- 
finement predisposes her to a similar attack at 
31 



364 HEALTH IN MARRIAGE. 

a subsequent similar period. There is consider- 
able divergence of opinion on this point. Dr. 
Gooch, an English physician of wide experience, is 
very strenuous in denying any such increased like- 
lihood, while an American obstetrician of note is 
quite as positive in taking the opposite view. The 
truth of the matter undoubtedly is, that where the 
mania is the exhibition of hereditary tendency, it is 
apt to recur ; but where it arises from transient 
causes, then it will only occur again if such causes 
exist. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF PREVENTION. 

Here, therefore, we perceive the importance of 
every woman, who has had, or who fears to have, 
one of these distressing experiences, being put on 
her guard against disregarding those rules of health 
the neglect of which may result so disastrously. 
One of the most powerful of these causes is exhaus- 
tion. We mean this in its widest sense, mental or 
physical. In those instances where mania appears 
at weaning, it is invariably where the child has been 
nursed too long, or where the mother has not had 
sufficient strength to nourish it without prostrating 
herself. It should be observed as a hygienic law, 
that no mother should nurse her children after she 
has had one attack of mania. The mere nervous 
excitement is altogether too much for her. She 
must once and for ever renounce this tender plea- 
sure. We even go so far as to recommend that no 
woman in whose family a mental taint is hereditary 
shall nurse her children. 

Anxiety, low spirits, unusual weakness from any 



DISEASES OF CHILDBED. 365 

cause, are powerful predisposing causes ; and there- 
fore in all cases, especially in those where the family 
or personal history leads one to fear such an attack, 
they should be avoided. The diet should be nourish- 
ing and abundant, but not stimulating. Cheerful 
society and surroundings should be courted, and in- 
dulgences in any single train of ideas avoided. As 
for directions during the attack, they are unneces- 
sary, as to combat it successfully often tasks the 
utmost skill of the physician ; and it will be for him 
to give these directions. 

WHITE-FLOWING. 

This affection, though not "confined to married 
women, is quite common during pregnancy and 
after confinement. There are few married women 
who pass through their lives without at some time 
or other having suffered from it. 

We will consider first that form of white dis- 
charge which affects pregnant women. It ordi- 
narily comes on during the latter half of pregnancy. 
Not only does it occasion much inconvenience, but 
it may, when copious, seriously weaken the system 
and impair the health. 

The best treatment consists in a regulated, but 
supporting, diet without stimulants, the avoidance 
of all marital relations, plenty of rest in bed or on 
a sofa, a warm hip bath every morning, and the use 
of injections. One of the best injections for this 
purpose is made by adding a tablespoonful of lead- 
water to a pint of water, and injecting the whole 
twice a day, by means of a rubber, hard-ball 
syringe. As this solution will stain the body-linen, 



366 HEALTH IN MARRIAGE. 

due precautions should be taken. Instead of this 
injection, a small teaspoonful of alum dissolved in a 
pint of water and injected once a day may be used. 

We will now say a few words upon the form of 
white-flowing which affects women after childbirth. 
It is a common result of too frequent confinements 
or of successive abortions. In women of a tendency 
to consumption it has been observed that white- 
flowing is more apt to arise in connection with 
child-bearing. Prolonged nursing, resulting in great 
debility of the mother, often produces very profuse 
white discharges. 

In warm countries this affection is much more 
frequent than elsewhere. Moist and damp climates 
are said also to render women particularly prone 
to it. 

The treatment must have regard to the general 
health of the patient. The mode of life must be 
regulated. A change of scene, if it can be pro- 
cured, is often of the greatest benefit. Baths are 
also very useful. They may be taken in the form 
of a ' sponge bath,' or ' hip bath.' If the former be 
preferred, the patient should every morning, in a 
warm room, sponge the whole body, at first with 
tepid water and, after a time, with cold, the skin 
being well dried and rubbed with a coarse towel. 
The hip-bath may be employed either of simple, or 
of salt, or of medicated water. It should be at 
first warm, and afterwards cold. The skin is to be 
well rubbed after the hip as after the sponge-bath. 
The hip-bath may be medicated with three or four 
tablespoonfuls of alum, or with a quarter of a pound 
of common household soda. 



DISEASES OF CHILDBED. 367 

In connection with this treatment, injections 
should be employed in the manner just directed for 
the white-flowing of pregnancy. 

MILK-LEG. 

This affection usually appears about ten days or 
two weeks after confinement. The first symptoms 
which show themselves are general uneasiness, 
chills, headache, and a quickened pulse. Then 
pains in the groin, extending down the thigh and 
leg of that side are complained of. Soon the whole 
limb becomes enlarged, hot, white, and shining. 
Feverishness and sleeplessness now naturally show 
themselves. 

The disease rarely lasts more than two or three 
weeks, although the limb remains stiff, perhaps, for 
a number of weeks longer. It is painful, but not 
dangerous — rarely proving fatal. 

When one leg is recovering, the disease some- 
times attacks the other, and runs through the same 
course. 

The treatment consists in enveloping the limb 
in turpentine stupes, followed by the application of 
poultices to the groin and a light diet at first. So 
soon as the severity of the attack is over, tonics 
and a generous diet should be given. The limb is 
then to be painted with tincture of iodine, or rather 
a mixture of one part of the tincture of iodine with 
two parts of alcohol, and afterwards wrapped in a 
flannel bandage. 

The term ' milk-leg ' has been applied to this 

inflammation, for such it is, from the notion that in 

some way the milk 'was diverted from the breasts 
31* 



$68 HEALTH IN MARRIAGE. 

to the limb, causing the white swelling. It is 
scarcely necessary to say this theory is entirely 
erroneous. 

INWARD WEAKNESS. 

Many, we may say most, married women whose 
health is broken down by some disease peculiar to 
their sex, refer the commencement of their suffer- 
ing to some confinement or premature birth. Per- 
haps, in four cases out of five, this breaking down 
is one of the symptoms of a displacement of the 
internal organs, — a malposition, in other words, of 
the uterus. This is familiarly known as an ' inward 
weakness ;' and many a woman drags through years 
of misery caused by a trouble of this sort. 

It is true that these malpositions occur in un- 
married women, and occasionally in young girls. 
But it is also true that their most frequent causes 
are associated with the condition of maternity. The 
relaxation of the ligaments or bands which hold the 
uterus in its place, which takes place during preg- 
nancy and parturition, predisposes to such troubles. 
It requires time and care for these ligaments to 
resume their natural strength and elasticity after 
childbirth. Then, too, the walls of the abdomen 
are one of the supports provided by nature to keep 
all the organs they contain in proper place by a 
constant elastic pressure. When, as in pregnancy, 
these walls are distended and put on the strain, 
suddenly to be relaxed after confinement, the 
organs miss their support, and are liable to take 
positions which interfere with the performance of 
their natural functions. Therefore we may rightly 



DISEASES OF CHILDBED. 369 

place the greater tendency of married women to this 
class of diseases among the perils of maternity. 
* Within the last fifteen years, probably no one 
branch of medical science has received greater at- 
tention at the hands of physicians than this of 
diseases of women. Many hitherto inexplicable 
cases of disease, much suffering referred to other 
parts of the system, have been traced to local mis- 
fortunes of the character we have just described. 
Medical works are replete with cases of the highest 
interest illustrative of this. We are afraid to state 
some of the estimates which have been given of the 
number of women in this country who suffer from 
these maladies ; nor do we intend to give in detail 
the long train of symptoms which characterize 
them. Such a sad rehearsal would avail little or 
nothing to the non -medical reader. It is enough 
to say, that the woman who finds herself afflicted 
by manifold aches and pains, without obvious 
cause ; who suffers with her head and her stomach 
and her nerves ; who discovers that, in spite of the 
precepts of religion and the efforts of will, she is 
becoming irritable, impatient, dissatisfied with her 
friends, her family, and herself; who is, in short, 
unable any longer to perceive anything of beauty 
and of pleasure in this world, and hardly anything 
to hope for in the next, — this woman, in all pro- 
bability, is suffering from a displacement or an 
ulceration of the uterus. Let this be relieved, and 
her sufferings are ended. Often a very simple pro- 
cedure can do this. We recall to mind a case 
described in touching language by a distinguished 
teacher of medicine. It is of an interesting young 

A A 



370 HEALTH IN MARRIAGE. 

married lady, who came from the Southern States 
to consult him on her condition. She coulql not 
walk across the room without support, and was 
forced to wear, at great inconvenience to herself, 
an abdominal supporter. Her mind was confused, 
and she was the victim of apparently causeless 
unpleasant sensations. She was convinced that 
she had been, and still was, deranged. 

The physician could discover nothing wrong 
about her system other than a slight falling of the 
womb. This was easily relieved. She at once im- 
proved in body and mind, soon was able to walk 
with ease and freedom, and once more enjoyed the 
pleasure of life. In a letter written soon after her 
return home, she said, ' This beautiful world, which 
at one time I could not look upon without disgust, 
has become once more a source of delight.' How 
strongly do these deeply, felt words reveal the dif- 
ference between her two conditions ! 

There is one source of great comfort in consider- 
ing these afflictions. It is, that they are in the great 
majority of cases traceable to 

CAUSES WHICH ARE AVOIDABLE. 

Most of them are the penalties inflicted by stern 
nature on infractions of her laws. Hence the great, 
the unspeakable, importance of women being made 
aware of the dangers to which they are exposed, 
and being fully informed how to avoid them. This 
task we now assume. 

There is, we concede, a tendency in the changes 
which take place during pregnancy and parturition' 
to expose the system to such accidents. But this 



DISEASES OF CHILDBED. 37 1 

tendency can be counteracted by care, and by the 
avoidance of certain notorious and familiar infrac- 
tions of the laws of health. It is usually not until 
she gets up and commences to go about the house, 
that the woman feels any pain referable to a dis- 
placed womb. Very frequently the origin of it is 
leaving the bed too soon, or attempting to do some 
work, too much for her strength, shortly after a 
premature birth or a confinement. Not only should 
a woman keep her bed, as a rule, for nineteen days 
after every abortion and every confinement, but for 
weeks after she commences to move about she 
should avoid any severe muscular exertion, espe- 
cially lifting, long walks, straining, or working on 
the sewing-machine. Straining at stool is one of 
the commonest causes. Many women have a ten- 
dency to constipation for weeks or months after 
childbirth. They are aware that it is unfavorable 
to health, and they seek to aid nature by violent 
muscular effort. They cannot possibly do a more 
unwise act. Necessarily the efforts they make 
press the womb forcibly down, and its ligaments be- 
ing relaxed, it assumes either suddenly on some one 
well-remembered occasion, or gradually after a suc- 
cession of efforts, some unnatural position. The same 
reasoning applies to relieving the bladder, which is 
connected in some persons with undue effort. 

Constipation, if present, must, and almost always 
can, be relieved by a judicious diet, and the moder- 
ate use of injections. These simple methods are 
much to be preferred to purgative medicines, which 
are rarely satisfactory if they are continued for 
much time. When anything more is needed, we 



372 HEALTH IN MARRIAGE. 

recommend a glass of some laxative mineral water, 
which should be taken before breakfast. 

For the difficulty with the bladder we mentioned, 
diet is also efficacious. It is familiarly known that 
several popular articles of food have a decided action 
in stimulating the kidneys : for instance, asparagus 
and water-melon. Such articles should be freely 
partaken, and their effect can be increased by some 
vegetable infusion, taken warm, — as juniper-tea or 
broom-tea. The application to the parts of a cloth 
wrung out in water as hot as it can conveniently be 
borne, is also a most excellent assistant to nature. 

Similar strains on the muscles of the abdomen 
are consequent on violent coughing and vomiting. 
Therefore these should be alleviated, as they always 
can be, by some anodyne taken internally. Any 
medical man is familiar with many such prepara- 
tions, so that it seems unnecessary to give any for- 
mula, particularly as it would have to be altered, 
more or less, to suit any given case. 

OTHER CAUSES OF INWARD WEAKNESS. 
Women of languid disposition and relaxed mus- 
cles are frequently urged to ' take e.xercise,' and to 
' go to work.' Their condition sometimes excites 
censure rather than commiseration, because it is 
thought that they do not exert, and thus strengthen, 
themselves as much as they should. We are quite 
as much in favour of work and vigorous muscles as 
any one. But often it were the most foolish advice 
possible to give a woman, to tell her to seek active 
exercise. It is just what she should avoid, as it 
may ultimately give rise to that very trouble which, 



DISEASES OF CHILDBED. 373 

now only threatening, is the cause of her listless- 
ness. Many instances are familiar to every phy- 
sician of extensive experience, where a long walk, 
a hard day's work, a vigorous dance in the evening, 
or a horseback ride, has left behind it a uterine 
weakness which has caused years of misery. Espe- 
cially after confinement or premature delivery it is 
prudent for a woman to avoid any such exertion 
for months and months. Moderate employment 
of her muscles in any light avocation, short walks 
and drives, fresh air, with judicious exercise, — these 
are well enough in every instance, but beyond them 
there is danger. We know too well that advice 
like this will sound like mockery to some who read 
these lines. They have to work, and work hard ; 
they have no opportunity to spare themselves ; the 
iron hand of necessity is upon them, and they must 
obey. We can but sympathize with them, and 
cheer them with the consolation that many a woman 
has borne all this and lived to a healthy and happy 
old age. Nature has surrounded the infinitely 
delicate machinery of woman's organization with a 
thousand safeguards, but for all that, the delicacy 
remains ; and it is because so many women are 
forced to neglect their duties to their ownselves, 
that so many thousands walk the streets of our 
great cities, living martyrs. 

But no. We must modify what we have just 
written. In justice to our own sex, and in all truth- 
fulness, we cannot allow the blame to be removed 
altogether from women themselves. They alone 
are responsible for one of the most fruitful causes of 
their wretchedness. The theme is a threadbare one. 



374 HEALTH IN MARRIAGE. 

We approach it without hardly any hope that we 
shall do good by repeated warnings utterly mono- 
tonous and tiresome. But still less can we feel com- 
fortable in mind to pass it over in silence. We re- 
fer to the foolish and injurious pressure which is 
exerted on the lower part of the chest and the ab- 
domen by tight corsets, belts, and bands to support 
the under-clothing ; in other words, 

TIGHT LACING. 

Why it is, by what strange freak of fashion and 
blindness to artistic rules, women of the present day 
think that a deformed and ill-proportioned waist is 
a requisite of beauty, we do not know. Certainly 
they never derived such an idea from a contempla- 
tion of those monuments of perfect beauty be- 
queathed to posterity by the chisels of Attic artists, 
nor from those exquisite figures which lend to the 
canvas of Titian and Raphael such immortal fame. 
Look, for instance, at that work of the former 
artist, now rendered so familiar by the chromo-litho- 
graphic process, called ' Titian's Daughter.' It is 
the portrait of a blonde-haired maiden holding aloft 
a trencher heaped with fruits. She turns her face 
to the beholder, leaning slightly backward to keep 
her equilibrium. Her waist is encircled by a zone 
of pearls ; and it is this waist we would have our 
readers observe with something more than an 
aesthetic eye. It is the waist of health as well as 
beauty. Narrower than either the shoulders or the 
hips, it is yet anything than that ' wasplike waist,' 
which is so fashionable a deformity. With such a 
waist, a woman is fitted to pass through her mar- 



DISEASES OF CHILDBED. $?$ 

ried state with health and pleasure. There is little 
fear that she will be the tenant of doctors' chairs, 
and the victim of drugs and instruments. Let 
women aim at beauty, let them regard it as a matter 
of very high importance, worth money and time 
and trouble, and we will applaud them to the echo. 
But let them not mistake deformity, vicious shape, 
unnatural and injurious attitudes, and hurtful dis- 
tortions for beauty. That not only degrades their 
physical nature, but it lowers their tastes, and places 
them in aesthetics on a level with the Indian squaw 
who flattens her head and bores her nose, and with 
the Chinese woman who gilds her teeth, and com- 
presses her foot into a shapeless mass. True beauty 
is ever synonymous with health ; and the woman 
who, out of subservience to the demands of fashion, 
for years squeezes her waist and flattens her breast, 
will live to rue it when she becomes a mother. 
Away, then, with tight corsets and all similar con- 
trivances. 

Of a similar objectionable character are many of 
the devices which ignorant men connected with the 
medical profession urge upon the public for the sake 
of remedying curvature of the spine, restoring the 
figure, or supporting the abdomen. Not a few of 
such braces and supporters are seriously dangerous. 
A good brace, well-fitting, carefully adjusted, suited 
to the particular case, is often of excellent service ; 
but the majority of them do not answer this de- 
scription. Our advice is, that no girl, and still more 
no mother, should wear one of these without it is 
fitted upon her by an experienced hand. We have 

known more than one instance where the binder put 
32 



376 HEALTH IN MARRIACE. 

on after childbirth has been wrongly placed, and 
pinned so firmly that it has resulted in producing 
falling of the womb. This, too, should be sedu- 
lously looked after. 

All these are causes which are strictly under the 
control of the woman herself. They are therefore 
such as she should have in mind and be on her 
guard against. There are others, but they are less 
frequent, which are beyond her power ; and it 
would be labor lost, therefore, for us to mention 
them. 

Equally vain would it be for us to speak of the 
various means by which difficulties of this nature 
are removed. Probably no one branch of medical 
surgery has been more assiduously cultivated than 
this ; and the number of supporters, pessaries, 
braces, and levers which have been recently brought 
before the medical profession for this purpose is 
simply appalling, There are women and men who 
make it their business to carry them through the 
country and sell them on commission. We dis- 
tinctly warn our readers against this class. They 
are almost invariably ignorant and unscrupulous, 
rich in promises, and regardless of performances. 
She who patronizes them will be sure to lose her 
money, and will be lucky if she does not forfeit her 
health also. 

The most we shall do is to give some advice how 
to treat such complaints on principles of hygiene. 
And indeed this means nearly one-half the battle. 
For without these simple cares, treatment of any 
kind is useless, and sure to fail ; and with them, 
many complaints are remedied as well as avoided. 



METHODS OF HOME TREATMENT. ^77 



THE HYGIENIC TREATMENT OF INWARD 
WEAKNESS. 

The first point we would urge is, that the woman 
who finds herself thus afflicted should seek to have 
such a position that she can rest. If she is bur- 
dened with family cares, let her, if possible, dimi- 
nish or escape them for a time. A rest of a month 
or two, not at a fashionable watering-place, nor at a 
first-class hotel in some noisy city, but in quiet 
lodgings, or with some sympathizing friend, will be 
of great advantage. This she should obtain with- 
out travelling too far. Prolonged motion in railway 
carriages is in every instance injurious. If it must 
be undertaken, for instance, in order to consult a 
qualified physician or to reach some friends, the 
modern appliances of comfort, such as air-cushions, 
foot-rests, and head-supports, should be provided. 
They cost but little, and to the invalid their value 
is great. No such journey should be undertaken 
at or near the time when the monthly illness might 
come on, as the suffering is always greater at these 
periods. 

The pleasant associations which group themselves 
around a happy home are an important element in 
the treatment of diseases which, like these, are so 
intimately connected with the mind and nervous 
system. It will not do heedlessly to throw such 
advantages away. When the home is pleasant, and 
rest can there be had, the patient, in the majority 
of instances, will do well to abide there. But when 
such is not the case, for any reason, be it domestic 



37^ HEALTH IN MARRIAGE. 

infelicities, in which the husband has a share, — be 
it disagreeable relatives, or importunate and tedious 
visitors, — then the sooner such a mental weight is 
removed or avoided the better. 

The diet is a very common subject of error. It 
is popularly supposed that everybody who is weak 
should eat a ' strengthening ' diet, — meat three times 
a day, — eggs, ale, and beef-tea to any extent. This 
is a great error. Frequently such a diet has just 
the contrary effect from what is expected. The 
patient becomes dyspeptic, nervous, and more debi- 
litated than ever. The rule is, that only that diet 
is strengthening which is thoroughly digested, and 
taken up in the system. Frequently, we may say 
in the majority of cases, a small amount of animal 
food, especially game, fowls, fish, and soups, with 
fresh vegetables, and ripe fruits, will be far more 
invigorating than heavier foods. Pastry, cakes, and 
confectionery should be discarded, and great regu- 
larity in the hours of meals observed. Stimulants 
of all kinds are, as a rule, unnecessary, and highly 
spiced food is to be avoided. There is an old Ger- 
man proverb which says, ' Pepper helps a man on 
his horse, and a woman to her grave.' This is much 
too strong ; but we may avail ourselves, in this 
connection, of the grain of truth that it contains. 

Cleanliness, in its widest sense, is an important 
element in the treatment. Not only should the 
whole surface of the body be thoroughly washed 
several times a week, but the whole person should 
be soaked by remaining in the water for an hour 
or more. This has an excellent effect, and is far 
from unpleasant. It was regarded in the days of 



METHODS OF HOME TREATMENT. 379 

ancient Rome as such a delightful luxury, and such 
a necessity, indeed, that every municipality erected 
public bathing establishments, with furnaces to heat 
the water to such a temperature that persons could 
remain in it for several hours without inconveni- 
ence. 

The use of public baths is almost unknown in 
this country ; but, in place of them, every modern 
house of even moderate pretensions has its own 
bath-room, so that the custom of cleanliness might 
appear to be hardly less general among all classes 
than in old Rome. 

The difficulty is, that so few people appreciate 
that to thoroughly cleanse the skin, still more for 
the bath to have a medicinal effect, it must be pro- 
longed far beyond the usual time we allow it. The 
European physicians, who, as a rule, attach much 
greater importance to this than ourselves, require 
their patients to remain immersed two, three, four, 
and occasionally even ten or twelve hours daily ! 
This is said to have most beneficial results ; but 
who would attempt to introduce it in this country ? 

Local cleanliness is of equal importance. This 
is obtained by means of- — 

INJECTIONS AND IRRIGATIONS 

of simple water, or of some infusion or solution. 
The use of the syringe as an article of essential 
service in preserving the health of married women 
should never be overlooked. Even when they are 
aware of no tendency to weakness or unusual dis- 
charge, it should be employed once or twice a 
32* 



380 HEALTH IN MARRIAGE. 

week ; and when there is debility or disease of the 
parts actually present, it is often of the greatest 
service. 

There are many varieties of female syringes now 
manufactured and sold, some of which are quite 
worthless. Much the most convenient, cleanly, and 
efficient is the self-injecting india-rubber syringe, 
which is worked by means of a ball held in the 
hand, and which throws a constant and powerful 
stream. They come neatly packed in boxes, occu- 
pying small space, and readily transported from 
place to place. Much depends on knowing how to 
apply them. The patient should be seated on the 
edge of a low chair or stool with a hard seat, im- 
mediately over a basin. The tube should then be 
introduced as far as possible without causing pain, 
and the liquid should be thrown up for five or ten 
minutes. About one or two quarts may be used 
of a temperature, in ordinary cases, a little lower 
than that of the apartment. Water actually cold 
is by no means to be recommended, in spite of 
what some physicians say to the contrary. It un- 
questionably occasionally leads to those very evils 
which the judicious use of the syringe is intended 
to avoid. 

No fluid but water should be used in ordinary 
cases. When, however, there is much discharge, a 
pinch of powdered alum can be dissolved in the 
water ; and when there is an unpleasant odor 
present, a sufficient amount of solution of perman- 
ganate of potash may be added to the water, to 
change it to a light pink color. This latter sub- 
s;^nce is most admirable in removing all unpleasant 



USE OF INJECTIONS AND IRRIGATIONS. 38 1 

odors ; but it will stain the clothing, and must on 
that account be employed with caution. 

We will add a few warnings to what we have 
just said about injections. There are times when 
they should be omitted, — as for instance during the 
periodical illness, when the body is either chilled 
or heated, and generally when their administration 
gives pain. There are also some women in whom 
the mouth of the womb remains open, especially 
those who have borne many children. In such cases, 
the liquid used is liable to be thrown into the womb 
itself, and may give rise to serious troubles. These 
should either omit the use of the syringe altogether, 
or obtain one of those which throw the water back- 
ward and not forward. .. This variety is manufac- 
tured and sold by various dealers. 

Irrigations are more convenient in some respects 
than injections. They are administered in the fol- 
lowing manner : — A jar holding about a gallon of 
water, simple or medicated, as may be advisable, 
is placed upon a table or high stand. A long india- 
rubber tube is attached to the bottom of the jar, 
ending in a metallic tube, and furnished with a 
stopcock. The patient seats herself on the edge of 
a chair over a basin, introduces the tube, and turns 
the stopcock. The liquid is thus thrown up in a 
gentle, equable stream, without any exertion on 
her part. No assistant is required, and the force 
and amount of the liquid can be exactly graduated 
by elevating or lowering the jar, or by turning the 
stopcock. When there is much debility, or when 
it is desirable to apply the liquid for a long time, 
this method is much preferable to syringing. The 



382 HEALTH IN MARRIAGE. 

necessary apparatus can readily be obtained in any 
large city. It has, however, the drawback that 
the jar is large, and not convenient to carry on 
journeys. 

We shall close this chapter on Health in Mar- 
riage by a few words on some of the ailments to 
which mothers are subject while nursing. 

GATHERED BREASTS. 

Gathering of the breasts may occur at any time 
during the period of nursing, but it is most fre- 
quently met with within the first three months after 
childbirth, and is more common after the -first than 
after subsequent confinements. All women are 
more or less liable to it, but those who are weakly, 
and particularly those who are scrofulous, are most 
prone to its attacks. 

The causes of inflammation of the breast are 
numerous. It may be created by a blow or fall, by 
a cold, by mental excitement, by indiscretions in 
eating or drinking, and by moving the arms too 
much when the breasts are enlarged, but its most 
common cause is undue accumulation of milk in 
the breasts. Dr. Bedford is of the opinion that in 
nineteen cases out of twenty it is the result of care- 
lessness — of neglect in not having the breasts pro- 
perly drawn. 'For example, the child may be 
delicate, and not able to extract the milk ; or the 
nurse, in the gratification of some ancient prejudice 
derived from a remote ancestry, does not think it 
proper to allow the infant to be put to the breast 
for two or three days after its birth. In this way, 
the milk ducts become greatly distended, infiamma- 



DISEASES WHILE NURSING. 383 

tion ensues, which, if not promptly arrested, termi- 
nates in suppuration.' 

Often the love of pleasure brings with it this 
punishment to the nursing mother who neglects her 
maternal duties. During an evening spent in society 
or at the theatre the breasts cannot be relieved in 
the manner required for the preservation of their 
health. 

Soreness of the nipples, which renders suckling 
painful, often leads the mother to avoid putting the 
child to the breast as often as she should. It is 
only when forced by the pain in the over-distended 
parts that she can summon courage to permit of 
their being emptied. This partial and irregular 
nursing is very dangerous, and cannot fail, in most 
cases, to lead to the very painful affection of which 
we are now speaking. 

No nursing mother is safe whose breasts are not 
properly and daily emptied. If this cannot be 
done by the child, another infant should be applied, 
or a small puppy, either of which expedients is 
preferable to a breast-pump, which, however, is 
much better than neither. If the tender or chapped 
condition of the nipples interferes with free nursing, 
this condition must be promptly remedied. When 
undue accumulation of milk is threatened gentle 
friction of the breasts with sweet oil and camphor 
is also of service ; and they should be supported by 
means of a handkerchief placed under them and 
tied over the shoulders. 

It must not be forgotten, however, that though 
gentle rubbing afford relief to the breasts when they 
are hard, knotty, and over-distended, any friction is 



384 HEALTH IN MARRIAGE. 

injurious if gathering has actually commenced. In 
all cases, therefore, it is of importance to distinguish 
between over-distension (which may lead to inflam- 
mation) and a condition of already established 
gathering of the breasts. This it is not difficult to 
do. In the former case, the skin is pale, there is 
little or no tenderness, and the hardness is evenly 
diffused over the whole of the breast ; whereas, 
when gathering has taken place there is a blush of 
redness on some portion of the breast, which is 
always painful to the touch, and which will be found 
to be particularly hard and sore in some one spot. 

The symptoms of gathered breasts we have just 
described in part. The severity of the symptoms 
will depend upon the extent and depth of the 
inflammation. The affection is always ushered in 
by shivering, followed by fever and a shooting pain 
in the breasts. A small, hard, painful swelling will 
be noticed in the breast even before the skin shows 
any sign^of redness. This swelling increases in 
size and the suffering becomes very great and dim- 
cult to bear, preventing sleep and prostrating the 
whole system. The secretion of milk is suspended 
at least during the first active stage of the disease. 

The object of treatment is to prevent the forma- 
tion of an abscess by subduing the inflammation as 
speedily as possible. This is to be sought first by 
keeping the breast as nearly empty as possible. 
For this reason the child should be assiduously ap- 
plied to the affected rather than to the well side, 
although suckling will be painful. Indeed, it is 
better, if it can be done, to procure an older child 
and let it keep the milk under. When, however, 



DISEASES WHILE NURSING. 385 

the inflammation is fully established, the pain will 
compel the restriction of the child to the well side. 
The application of warmth is both grateful to the 
part and beneficial. This may be done by means 
of poultices or fomentations, or by immersing a 
wooden bowl in hot water and putting the breast, 
wrapped in flannel, within it. This latter means 
will be found an easy and agreeable one of keeping 
up the application of dry heat. The bowels should 
be briskly purged by a dose of citrate of magnesia 
or cream of tartar. The diet must be mild, and 
the breasts supported in a sling. If, in spite of all 
these efforts, an abscess actually forms, the attend- 
ing physician will doubtless advise its immediate 
opening, to which advice the patient should accede, 
as that is the course which will afford her quicker 
and more effectual relief than she can hope for from 
nature's unaided efforts at effecting a discharge of 
the pent-up matter. 

It is interesting for the mother to know that if 
her child be still-born, or if unfortunately she be 
unable from any of the reasons mentioned in our 
chapter on Hindrances to Nursing to give the 
breast at all to her child, she is not liable to gather- 
ing on this account. This is contrary to what might 
be expected. It is not the mother who is unable 
to nurse at all who suffers, but she who does so in 
an unsatisfactory manner and who fails to have her 
breasts properly emptied. 

The first milk which makes its appearance in the 
breast towards recovery from inflammation is likely 
to be stringy and thick, and should, therefore, be 
rejected before nursing is resumed. 



THE SINGLE LIFE. 



A FEW words, ere we pass to another branch of 
our subject, on the physical relations of her 
who by choice or other reasons never marries. It is 
a common observation among physicians who have 
devoted themselves to the study of woman's phy- 
sical nature, that, in spite of those perils of mater- 
nity which we have taken no pains to conceal, the 
health of single women during the child-bearing 
period is, as a general rule, not better, not even so 
good, as that of their married sisters. Those insu- 
rance companies who take female risks, do not ask 
any higher premium for the married than the un- 
married. 

Various suggestions have been made to account 
for this unexpected fact. Some writers have pointed 
out that in many diseases marriage exerts a 
decidedly curative influence, especially in chronic 
nervous ailments. Chorea, for instance, or St. 
Vitus's dance, as it is popularly termed, has been 
repeatedly cured by marriage. As a rule, painful 
menstruation, which always arises from some defect 
or disease of the ovaries or adjacent organs, is im- 
proved, and often completely removed, by the same 
act. There are, as is well known, a whole series of 
emotional disorders, — hysteria, and various kinds of 



THE SINGLE LIFE. 387 

mania and hallucination, — which are almost exclu- 
sively confined to single persons, and only occur in 
the married under exceptional circumstances. An 
instance has lately been detailed in the medical 
journals by a Prussian physician, of a case of un- 
doubted hereditary insanity which was greatly ' 
benefited — indeed temporarily cured — by a fortu- 
nate nuptial relation. Few who have watched a 
large circle of lady acquaintances but will have ob- 
served that many of them increased in flesh and 
improved in health when they had been married 
some months. An English writer of distinction 
accounts for these favourable results in a peculiar 
manner. Success, he says, is always a tonic, and 
the best of tonics. Now, to women, marriage is a 
success. It is their aim in social life ; and this ac- 
complished, health and strength follow. We are 
not quite ready to subscribe to such a sweeping 
assertion, but no doubt it is applicable in a limited 
number of cases. Our own opinion is, that nature 
gave to each sex certain functions, and that the 
whole system is in better health when all parts and 
powers fulfil their destiny. 

Common proverbs portray the character of the 
spinster as peevish, selfish, given to queer fancies, 
and unpleasant eccentricities. In many a case we 
are glad to say this is untrue. Instances of noble 
devotion, broad and generous sympathy, and distin- 
guished self-sacrifice, are by no means rare in single 
women. But take the whole class, the popular 
opinion, as it often is, must be granted to be correct. 
Deprived of the natural objects of interest, the sen- 
timents are apt to fix themselves on parrots and 

33 B B 2 



388 THE SINGLE LIFE. 

poodles, or to be confined within the breast, and 
wither for want of nourishment. Too often the 
history of those sisterhoods who assume vows of 
singleness in the interest of religion, presents to 
the physician the sad spectacle of prolonged ner- 
vous maladies, and to the Christian that of a sickly 
sensibility. 

In this connection we may answer a question 
not unfrequently put to the medical attendant. 
Are those women who marry late in their sexual 
life more apt to bear living children than the 
married of the same age ; and are they more 
likely to prolong their child-bearing period by their 
deferred nuptials ? To both these inquiries we 
answer No. On the contrary, the woman who 
marries a few years only before her change of life, 
is almost sure to have no children who will survive. 
She is decidedly less apt to have any than the 
woman of the same age who married young. If, 
therefore, love of children and a desire for offspring 
form, as they rightly should, one of the induce- 
ments to marry, let not the act be postponed too 
long, or it will probably fail of any such result. 



THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 



AFTER a certain number of years, woman lays 
aside those functions with which she had 
been endowed for the perpetuation of the species, 
and resumes once more that exclusively individual 
life which had been hers when a child. The even- 
ing of her days approaches ; and if she has observed 
the precepts of wisdom, she may look forward to a 
long and placid period o'f rest, blessed with health, 
— honored, yes, loved with a purer flame than 
any which she inspired in the bloom of youth and 
beauty. Those who are familiar with the delight- 
ful memoirs of Madame Swetchine or Madame 
Recamier will not dispute even so bold an assertion 
as this. 

But ere this haven of rest is reached, there is a 
crisis to pass which is ever the subject of anxious 
solicitude. Unscientific people, in their vivid lan- 
guage, call it the change of life ; physicians know it 
as the menopause — the period of the cessation of 
the monthly flow. It is the epoch when the ovaries 
cease producing any more ova, and the woman 
becomes therefore incapable of bearing any more 
children. 

The age at which it occurs is very variable. In 
this country from forty-five to fifty is the most com- 



390 THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 

mon. Instances are not at all unusual when it does 
not appear until the half century has been turned ; 
and we have known instances where women past 
sixty still continued to have their periodical ill- 
nesses. 

Examples of very early cessation are more rare. 
We do not remember to have met any, in our ex- 
perience, earlier than thirty years, but others have 
observed healthy womfen as young as twenty-eight 
in whom the flow had ceased. 

The physical change which is most apparent at 
this time is the tendency to grow stout. The fat 
increases as the power of reproduction decreases. 
And here a curious observation comes in. We 
have said that when the girl changes to a woman, 
a similar deposit of fat takes place (though less in 
amount), which commences at the loins. This is 
the first sign of puberty. In the change of life the 
first sign is visible at the lower part of the back of 
the neck, on a level with the bones known as the 
two lowest cervical vertebrae. Here commences 
an accumulation of fat, which often grows to form 
two distinct prominences, and is an infallible index 
of the period of a woman's life. 

The breasts do not partake of this increase, but 
become flat and hard, the substance of the gland v 
losing its spongy structure. The legs and arms 
lose their roundness of outline, and, where they do 
not grow fat, dry up, and resemble those of the 
other sex. The abdomen enlarges, even to the 
extent occasionally of leading the wife to believe 
that she is to be a mother, — a delusion sometimes 
strengthened by the absence of the monthly sick- 



THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 39 1 

ness. Finally, a perceptible tendency to a beard 
at times manifests itself, the voice grows harder, 
and the characteristics of the female sex become 
less and less distinct. 

Some who are more fortunate than their neigh- 
bours do not experience the least discomfort at the 
change of life. They simply note that at the ex- 
pected time the illness does not appear, and for 
ever after they are fr,ee from it. These are the 
exceptions. More commonly, marked alterations 
in the health accompany this important crisis, and 
call for sedulous hygienic care. It is gratifying to 
know that nearly all these threatening affections 
can be avoided by such care, as they depend upon 
causes under the control of the individual. Another 
fact, to which we have already referred, is full of 
consolation. It is an unexpected fact — one that 
we should hardly credit, did it not rest on statis- 
tical evidence of the most indisputable character. 
The popular opinion, every one knows, is, that the 
period of the change of life is one peculiarly dan- 
gerous to women. If this is so, we might expect 
that, if the number of deaths between the ages of 
forty and fifty years in the two sexes be compared, 
we should find that those of females far exceed 
those of males. This is, however, not the case. 
On the contrary, the deaths of the males exceed in 
number those of the females. 

Hasty readers may draw a false conclusion from 

this statement. They may at once infer that the 

change of life merits little or no attention, if it thus 

in nowise increases the bills of mortality. This 

would be a serious error. All intelligent physicians 
33* 



392 THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 

know that there are in very many cases a most 
unpleasant train of symptoms which characterize 
this epoch in the physical life of woman. They 
are alarming, painful, often entailing sad conse- 
quences, though rarely fatal. All physicians are, 
however, not intelligent ; and there are too many 
who are inclined to ridicule such complaints, to 
impute them to fancy, and to think that they have 
done their full duty when they tell the sufferer that 
such sensations are merely indicative of her age, 
and that in a year, or two they will all pass away. 
Such medical attendants do not appreciate the 
gravity of the sufferings they have been called to 
relieve. Says a distinguished writer on the subject, 
after entering into some details in the matter : ' I 
would not dwell on things apparently so trivial as 
these, had I not seen some of the worst misery 
this world witnesses induced thereby.' Such a 
conviction should be in the mind of the physician, 
and lead him to attach their full weight to the 
vague, transitory, unstable, but most distressing 
symptoms described to him. 

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS. 

We shall speak of the various signs and symp- 
toms which occur at and mark the change ; and in 
commencing so to do, we call attention to an inte- 
resting illustration of the rhythm which controls 
the laws of life. As in old age, when we draw 
near the last scene of all, we re-enter childhood, 
and grow into second infancy, sb the woman, 
finishing her pilgrimage of sexual life, encounters 
the same landmarks and stations which greeted 



THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 393 

her when she first set out. She obeys at eve the 
voice of her own nature which she obeyed at prime. 
The same diseases and disorders, the same nervous 
and mental sensations, the same pains and weak- 
nesses which preceded the first appearance of her 
monthly illness, will in all probability precede its 
cessation. Even those affections of the skin or of 
the brain, as epilepsy, which were suffered in child- 
hood, and which disappeared as soon as the peri- 
odical function was established, may be expected 
to reappear when the function has reached its 
natural termination. Therefore if a woman past 
the change notices that she suffers from bleeding 
at the nose, headache, boils, or some skin disease, 
let her bethink herself whether it is not a repetition 
of some similar trouble with which she was plagued 
before the eventful period which metamorphosed 
her from a girl into a woman. 

So true is what we have just said, that in detail- 
ing the symptoms which frequently occur at the 
change of life, we could turn back to the previous 
pages where we discussed the dangers of puberty, 
and repeat much that we there said as of equal 
application here. For instance, the green-sickness, 
chlorosis, is by no means exclusively a disease of 
girls. It may occur at any period of child-bearing 
life, but is much more frequent at the beginning 
and the end of this term. Hardly any one has 
watched women closely without having observed 
the peculiar tint of skin, the debility, the dislike of 
society, the change of temper, the fitful appetite, 
the paleness of the eye, and the other traits that 
show the presence of such a condition of the ner- 



394 THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 

vous system in those about renouncing their powers 
of reproduction. The precautions and rules which 
we before laid down, can be read with equal profit 
in this connection. 

In addition to these symptoms, which in a mea- 
sure belong to the individual's own history, there 
are others of a general character which betoken the 
approaching change. One of them is an increasing 
irregularity in the monthly appearance. This is 
frequently accompanied with a sinking sensation, — 
a ' feeling of goneness,' as the sufferer says — at the 
pit of the stomach, often attended by flushes of 
heat, commencing at the stomach and extending 
over the whole surface of the body. The face, 
neck, and hands are suffused at inopportune 
moments, and greatly to the annoyance of the 
sufferer. This is sometimes accompanied by a 
sense of fulness in the head, a giddiness, and dul- 
ness of the brain, sometimes going so far as to 
cause an uncertainty in the step, a slowness of 
comprehension, and a feeling as if one might fall 
at any moment in some sort of a fit. 

This is not the worst of it. These physical 
troubles react upon the mind. An inward nervous- 
ness, intensely painful to bear, is very sure to be 
developed. She fears she will be thought to have 
taken liquor, and to be overcome with wine ; she 
grows more confused, and imagines that she is 
watched with suspicious and unkind eyes, and 
often she worries herself by such unfounded fancies 
into a most harassing state of mental distress. 
Society loses its attractions, and solitude does but 
allow her opportunity to indulge to a still more in- 



THE CHANGE OF LIFE. ■ 2>9S 

jurious extent such brooding phantasms. Every 
ache and pain is magnified. Does her heart pal- 
pitate, as it is very apt to do ? Straightway she 
is certain that she has some terrible disease of that 
organ, and that she will drop down dead some day 
in the street. Is one of her breasts somewhat sore, 
which, too, is not unusual ? She knows at once it 
is a cancer, and suffers an agony of terror from a 
cause wholly imaginary. 

Vibrating between a distressing excitement and 
a gloomy depression, her temper gives way ; and 
even the words of the Divine Master lose their 
influence over her. She becomes fretful, and yet 
full of remorse for yielding to her peevishness ; she 
seeks for sympathy, without being able to give 
reasons for needing it ; she annoys those around 
her by groundless fears, and is angered when they 
show their annoyance. In fine, she is utterly 
wretched, without any obvious cause of wretched- 
ness. . 

This is a dark picture, but it is a true one — inexo- 
rably true. Let us hasten to add that such a men- 
tal condition is, however, neither a necessary nor a 
frequent concomitant of the change. We depict it, 
so that friends and relatives may better appreciate 
the sufferings of a class too little understood, and 
so that women themselves, by knowing the cause 
of such complaints, and the sad results which flow 
from them, may make the more earnest efforts to 
avoid them. 

Other symptoms are, ,a sense of choking, a feel- 
ing of faintness, shooting pains in the back and 
loins, creepings and chilliness, a feeling as if a hand 



396 THE CHANGE OF LIEE. 

were applied to the back or the cheek, a fidgety rest- 
lessness, inability to fix the mind on reading or in 
following a discourse, and a loss of control over the 
emotions, so that she is easily affected to tears or to 
laughter. All these merely indicate that nature is 
employing all her powers to bring about that mys- 
terious transformation in the economy by which she 
deprives the one sex for ever of partaking in the 
creative act after a certain age, while she only 
diminishes the power of the other. 

EFFECTS ON THE CHARACTER. 

The effects on the character of this 'grand 
climacteric' are often marked. Not unfrequently 
the woman becomes more masculine in thought 
and habit, as has been admirably described by Dr. 
Tilt : — ' There are almost always while the change 
is progressing various forms of nervous irritability 
and some amount of confusion and bewilderment, 
which seem to deprive women of the mental endow- 
ments to which they had acquired a good title by 
forty years' enjoyment. They often lose confidence 
in themselves, are unable to manage domestic or 
other business, and are more likely to be imposed 
on either within or without the family circle. When 
the change is effected, the mind emerges from the 
clouds in which it has seemed lost. Thankful that 
they have escaped from real sufferings, women cease 
to torture themselves with imaginary woes, and as 
they feel the ground grow steadier underfoot, they 
are less dependent on others — for, like the body, 
the mental faculties then assume a masculine cha- 
racter. The change of life does not give talents, 



THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 397 

but it often imparts a firmness of purpose to bring 
out effectively those that are possessed, whether it 
be to govern a household, to preside in a drawing- 
room, or to thread and unravel political entangle- 
ments. When women are no longer hampered 
by a bodily infirmity periodically returning, they 
have more time at their disposal, and for obvious 
reasons they are less subject to be led astray by 
a too ardent imagination, or by wild flights of 
passion.' 

Changes in the moral character also frequently 
show themselves, and for a time astonish friends 
and relatives. These shades of moral insanity all 
disappear in a little while, if there be no family 
tendency to insanity to prolong and intensify 
them. 

THOSE WHO SUFFER MOST. 

Those women especially may anticipate serious 
trouble at this epoch in whom the change at puberty 
was accompanied by distressful and obstinate dis- 
orders, — those in whom the menstrual periods have 
usually been attended with considerable pain and 
prostration, and those in whose married life several 
abortions or several tedious and unnatural labors 
have occurred ; also those who from some tempo- 
rary cause are reduced in health and strength, — as 
from repeated attacks of intermittent fever, or dis- 
orders of the liver and digestive organs. Still more 
predisposed are they who are subject to some of 
those displacements or local ulcerations which we 
have mentioned in our chapter on Health in Mar- 
riage. It becomes of great consequence, that any 



398 THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 

such deviation from the healthy standard shall be 
corrected before a woman reaches this trying pas- 
sage in her career. 

The constitution and temperament have much 
to do with the liability to disease and suffering 
during the change of life. Those of weak constitu- 
tions sometimes fail of the necessary stamina to 
carry them easily through the trials of this transition 
period. It has been remarked that the lymphatic 
temperament is the most favorable to an easy 
change. Women with this temperament suffer 
less from nervous or bilious disorders, and quickly 
show signs of having been benefited by what 
has occurred. Those of a sanguine temperament 
are more liable to floodings and to head symp- 
toms ; but such disorders with them usually readily 
yield to treatment. The bilious temperament pre- 
disposes to disorders of the stomach and liver at 
this epoch ; while the union of the nervous with 
the bilious temperament seems to predispose to 
mental diseases. The most suffering at this time 
of life is experienced by women of a nervous 
temperament. 

The social position exerts an influence on the 
pain and the tendency to disease at this epoch. 
The poor who are forced to labor beyond their 
strength and who are exhausted by fatigue, 
anxiety, and want, suffer much. So also do those 
who have recently been exposed to some great 
sorrow. As the poet says : — 



Danger, long travel, want, or woe, 

Soon change the form that best we know 



THE CHANGE OF LIFE, 399 

For deadly fear can time out-go, 

And blanch at once the hair. 
Hard toil can roughen form and face, 
And want can quell the eye's bright grace, 
Nor does old age a wrinkle trace 

More deeply than despair. 

The occupations of women also have an influence 
upon the change of life. Washerwomen are said 
in particular to suffer more than others on account 
of the exposure to which they are subject by their 
trade. Those who are confined many hours a day 
in close or damp rooms are unfavorably situated 
for passing through the various stages of the ' grand 
climacteric' The rich, with plenty of time and 
means to care for themselves, often blindly or obsti- 
nately create an atmosphere about them and follow 
a mode of life, quite as deleterious as the enforced 
surroundings of their poorer sisters. 

DISEASES AND DISCOMFORTS. 

In rather more than one out of every four cases 
the change of life is either ushered in or accom- 
panied by considerable flooding. When this occurs 
at the regular period, and is not in sufficient quan- 
tity to cause debility, and is not associated with 
much pain, it need not give rise to any alarm. It 
is an effort of nature to relieve the impending ple- 
thora of the system, to drain away the excessive 
amount of blood which would otherwise accumulate 
by the cessation of the flow. When it is remem- 
bered that every month, for some thirty years of 
life, the woman of forty-five has been moderately 

bled, we need not wonder that suddenly to break 
34 



400 THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 

off this long habit would bring about a plethora, 
which would in turn be the source of manifold 
inconveniences to the whole system. Therefore 
this flooding may be regarded as a wise act of 
nature, and, as such, allowed to take its course 
so long as it is not attended with the symptoms 
mentioned above. When this is the case, how- 
ever, the doctor should be consulted, as then the 
bleeding may be from inflammation or ulceration, 
or even from that dreaded foe to life, cancer. 

Instead of finding this exit, the blood occasion- 
ally is thrown off by bleeding at the nose, or is spat 
up from the lungs, or is passed from bleeding piles. 
Due caution must be used about stopping such dis- 
charges too promptly. Rest, cool drinks, and the 
application of cold to the parts, are generally all that 
is needed. 

We have just spoken of cancer. This is a subject 
of terror to many women, and their fears are often 
increased and deliberately played upon by base 
knaves who journey about the country calling them- 
selves ' cancer doctors,' and professing to have some 
secret remedy with which they work infallible cures. 
It should be generally known that all such preten- 
sions • are false. It is often a matter of no little 
difficulty, requiring an experienced eye, to pro- 
nounce positively whether a tumour or ulcer is can- 
cerous. These charlatans have no such ability ; but 
they pronounce every sore they see a cancer, and 
all their pretended cures are of innocent, non-malig- 
nant disorders. Cancers are more apt to develope 
themselves at this period. Their seat is most fre- 
quently in the womb or the breast, and they are 



THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 40 1 

said to be especially liable to arise in those women 
who have suffered several abortions or unnatural 
labours. Undoubtedly they are more frequent in 
the married than the unmarried, and they evidently 
bear some relation to the amount of disturbance 
which the system has suffered during childbirth, and 
the grief and mental pain experienced. For this 
reason a celebrated teacher of obstetrics insists upon 
classing thern among nervous diseases. The sur- 
geon alone can cure them, and he but rarely. Medi- 
cine is of no avail, however long and painstaking 
have been its searches in this direction. A touch- 
ing story is related in this connection of Raymond 
Sully, the celebrated philosopher. When a young 
man, he was deeply impressed with the beauty of 
a lady, and repeatedly urged his suit, which she 
as persistently repelled, though it was evident she 
loved him. One day, when he insisted with more 
than usual fervor that she should explain her 
mysterious hesitation, she drew aside the folds of 
her dress and exposed her breast, partly destroyed 
by a cancer. Shocked and horrified, but unmoved 
in his affection, he rushed to the physicians and 
demanded their aid. They replied they could give 
none. He determined to find a cure, if he had to 
seek in all parts of the earth. He visited the 
learned doctors of Africa and Asia, and learned 
many wonderful things — even, it was said, the com- 
position of the philosopher's stone itself ; but what 
he did not find, and what has never yet been 
found, was what he went forth to seek — a cure for 
cancer. 

At this time, too, tumors or swellings of the 



402 THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 

ovaries are apt to commence. They are nearly 
always preceded by scanty or painful menstrua- 
tion ; and this, therefore, it is the duty of every 
woman, as she values the preservation of her 
future health, to remedy by every means in her 
power. 

Generally, from the commencement of the 
change of life commences also a steady diminution 
of the sexual passions, and soon after this period 
they quite disappear. Sometimes, however, the 
reverse takes place, and the sensations increase in 
intensity, occasionally exceeding what they even 
were before. This should be regarded with alarm. 
It is contrary to the design of nature, and can but 
mean that something is wrong. Deep-seated dis- 
ease of the uterus or ovaries is likely to be present, 
or an unnatural nervous excitability is there, which, 
if indulged, will bring about dangerous conse- 
quences. Gratification, therefore, should be tem- 
perate, and at rare intervals, or wholly denied. 

PRECAUTIONS AND REMEDIES. 

To guard against the dangers of this epoch, 
those general rules of health which we have 
throughout insisted upon should be rigidly ob- 
served. If during the whole of her sexual life the 
woman has been diligent in observing the laws of 
health, she has little to fear at this period. Some 
simple remedies will suffice to allay the disagree- 
able symptoms ; and the knowledge that most of 
them are temporary, common to her sex, and not 
significant of any peculiar malady, will aid her in 
opposing their attacks on her peace of mind. 



THE CHANGE OF LIFE. * 403 

When plethora, flooding, or congestion is apparent, 
the food should be light, chiefly vegetable, and 
moderate in quantity. Liquors, wines, strong tea, 
coffee, and chocolate should be avoided ; an occa- 
sional purgative or a glass of some laxative mineral 
water should be taken, and cool bathing regularly 
observed. Exercise should be indulged in with 
caution, and care taken to avoid excitement, severe 
mental or bodily effort, and exhaustion. If the 
system is debilitated, and the danger is rather from 
a want of blood than too much blood, nourishing 
food, tonic medicines, and perhaps some stimulant, 
are called for. When the perspiration is excessive, 
flannel should be worn next the skin in the day- 
time, and a flannel night-dress at night. A tepid 
bath before retiring is also useful. The ' goneness' 
and other unpleasant sensations referred to the pit 
of the stomach may be much relieved by wearing 
a well-made spice-plaster over the stomach, or 
binding there a bag of gum camphor ; or if these 
fail, an opium plaster will hardly fail to be of ser- 
vice. Internally, we think, nothing at all is needed; 
but as something must be taken, let it not be spirits 
or wine, but half a tea-spoonful of aromatic spirits 
of ammonia in a few table-spoonfuls of water. 
There is too much of a tendency among some 
women to seek alleviation in intoxicating com- 
pounds, 'bitters,' 'tonics/ and so forth, at such 
times. They can only result in injury, and should 
be shunned. The pains in the back and loins 
often experienced, can generally be removed by rub- 
bing the parts with hot mustard-water and taking 
a gentle purgative, or by placing against the lower 
34* c c 2 



404 THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 

part of the spine a hot brick wrapped in a flannel 
cloth wrung out in warm water or laudanum and 
water. 

Once safely through this critical period, the 
woman has a better chance for long life and a 
green old age than the man of equal years. Tables 
of human life show this conclusively. With the 
sweet consciousness of duty performed, she is now 
prepared to assist others by intelligent advice, 
cheerful counsel, and tender offices ; she can now 
surround herself with that saintly halo of kind 
words and good works which wins a worthier love 
than passion offers ; and, passing onward to the 
silence of eternal rest, she will leave in the memory 
of all who knew her, pleasant impressions and 
affectionate reminiscences. 



NOTES. 



P. 20. Hermaphrodites and Asexualism.— Rokitan- 
sky decides Hohmann to be a case of hermaphrodita vera, 
lateralis, and all who examine her say the same. See 
Wiener Medicin. Wochenschrift, October, 1868, and the 
Medical a?id Surgical Reporter, vol. xix. p. 487. A marked 
case of asexualism, proven so by a post mortem examination, 
is reported in the Buffalo Medical and Surgical yournal for 
April, 1869, p. 338 ; and another in the Medical Times and 
Gazette of about the same date. We might refer to many 
less recent, but less authentic, cases. 

P. 25. Age of Puberty.— See case by Dr. T. H. Twiner, 
in the Richmond and Louisville Medical yournal, March, 
1869, Raciborski, De la Menstruation et de P Age Critique 
chez la Femme, p. 130. The quotation (p. 26) is from Dr. 
Edward Smith, Cyclical Changes in Health and Disease, 
— a profound work. Raciborski is the principal authority 
for this and the following section. Our own inquiries fully 
confirm his statements. 

P. 32. Influence of the Moon on Menstruation. 
— On this question, see the researches of M. Parchappe, 
Comptes Rendus de VAcademie des Sciences, torn. xvi. p. 550. 
See also Dr. Shrye, Tractatus de Fluxu Menstruo, in the 
Acta Lipsiensia for 1686, p. in ; Dr. W. Charleton, Inqui- 
sitio Physica de Causis Catame?iiorum, p. 78 ; and Galen, 
De Diebus Decretoriis, lib. iii., for other curious particulars. 

P. 37. CHLOROSIS. — For the pathology of this disease, see 



406 NOTES. 

C. H. Bauer, in the Weiner Medicin. Zeitung, No. 33, 1868. 
Occasionally the change at puberty leads to an affection very 
closely resembling typhoid fever, but which is strictly due to 
the sexual crisis ; and often goitre commences at this period. 
See a review of Raciborski, in the Bulletin de Therapeu- 
tique, June, 1869. 

P. 39. Masturbation in Girls. — See Miss Catherine E. 
Beecher, Letters to the People on Health and Happiness, p. 
159. The late medical literature on the subject is abundant. 
See Ueber die Behandlung der Masturbation bei kleinen 
Madchen, Journal jiir Kinderkrankheiten, Bd. li. p. 360; 
H. R. Storer, Western Jotimal of Medicine, July, 1868; 
and Journal of the Gynceco logical Society, vol. i. No. 1. 

Pp. 50, 51. Premature Marriages. — See Dr. Duncan, 
Fecundity, Fertility, etc., p. 241 ; Reich, Natur und Ges- 
undheitslehre des Ehelichen Lebens, p. 518. 

P. 56. Holy Love. — The distinction between ayain) and 
ipai-f) is too familiar to all scholars to need extended mention. 
See Trench, Synonyms of the New Testanient, sub voce. 

Pp. 57, 58. Single Life in its relation to Sanity 
AND MORTALITY. — The extraordinary statements in the text 
are vouched for by Dr. Casper, Medicinische Statistik, vol. 
ii. p. 164, and Dr. Reich, Geschichte, Natur, und Gesund- 
heitslehre des Ehelichen Lebens, pp. 510, 511. We have 
compared the reports of a number of asylums for the insane, 
and find the proportions very nearly as great as stated by 
these authorities. ' 

P. 70. Intermarriage of Relatives. — The view we 
advocate on this point, we know, is neither the received nor 
the popular one. In the middle ages it was forbidden to 
intermarry within the seventh degree of consanguinity ; but 
this and all other regulations were based on theological and 
political, not physiological, grounds. Quite recently, Dr. 
Nathan Allen has insisted on the danger of consanguineous 



NOTES. 407 

marriages {Journal of Psychological Medicine, April, 1869). 
But other, very careful and recent students adopt the view of 
our text : for instance, Dr. F. J. Behrend, Journal fur 
Kinderkrankheiten, December, 1868, p. 316 ; Dr. A. Voisin, 
in the reports of the Paris A cademie de Medecin, 1864, 1865, 
and 1868 ; and Dr. H. Gaillard, in the last edition (1868) of 
the Dictionnaire de Medecine et de Chirurgie Pratique. All 
the statements in the text are supported with incontrovertible 
evidence by these writers. If we are asked how to meet the 
seemingly alarming array of allegations by Dr. Bemiss, the 
Kentucky physician referred to in the Transactio7ts of the 
American Medical Association for 1859, we would refer to 
Dr. Behrend's articles, where the researches of Bemiss are 
severely criticised. For Dr. Edward Smith's assertion, see 
his Essay on Co7isumption, p. 244 (Philadelphia, 1865). 

P. 80. Communication of Venereal Diseases. — 
Many instances are recorded where a drinking-glass, a 
spoon, a fork, or a handkerchief has infected innocent per- 
sons with these terrible diseases (see Cullerier, Atlas of 
Venereal Diseases, p. 43). They are communicated from 
the male to the female, or from the female to the male, with 
equal facility, and either parent can transmit them to the 
children. The physician referred to is Dr. Sigmund, in the 
Humboldt Medical Archives, 1868. 

P. 83. Symbolism. — See Dr. Carus, Symbolik der Men- 
schlichen Gestalt, the most scientific work ever written on 
physiognomy, phrenology, and allied subjects. 

Pp. 90, 91. — See Raciborski, De la Puberte et de VAge 
Critique chez la Femme, p. 133 ; Tilt, Uterine Therapeutics, 
P-3I5- 

P. 94. Contagion of Phthisis. — See Dr. William A. 
Hammond's Treatise on Hygiene, p. 438, fot air-space 
required by a healthy person. The contagion of phthisis is 
maintained by many authorities — among others, Dr. W. W. 
Gerhard (see Pennsylvanian Hospital Reports for 1 868, p. 



408 NOTES. 

266). Professor Castan has recently collected, in the Mont- 
pelier Medicate, a variety of facts, which seem to show that 
tuberculosis may be communicated from a diseased to a 
healthy person by transpiration, breathed air, and living 
together {Press and Circular, March 10, 1869). In regard 
to the inoculation of tubercle, we have reference to the well- 
known experiments of M. Villemin, of the Hopital Val-de- 
Grace, Paris. In this connection we may record an instance 
of recent medical heroism. M. Lespiaud, attached to the 
surgical department of the Val-de-Grace, in presence of 
several of his colleagues, extracted granular matter from the 
body of a phthisical subject, and introduced it under his own 
integument. This zealous investigator into the etiology of 
tuberculosis has thus exposed himself in a courageous way 
for the benefit of science, to the effects of a most dangerous 
and merciless disease. 

P. 96. The Dignity and Propriety of the Sexual 
INSTINCT. — Dr. Edward John Tilt is the medical writer 
referred to (see Uterine Therapeutics, pp. 95, 313). See 
also Bosquet, Noveau Tableau de l 1 Amour Conjugal, vol. ii. 
p. 2, etc. ; Rousel, Systhne Physique et Moral de la Femme, 
p. 211; Menville, Histoire Medicate et Philosophique de la 
Femme, vol. i. p. 36 et seq. j Raciborski, De la Puberte, etc., 
P-45- 

P. 99. On the Indulgence and Restraint of Sexual 
Desire. — Menville, vol. ii. p. 91 ; Bosquet, vol. ii. p. 280 ; 
Economy of Life — or, Food, Repose, and Love, by George 
Miles. Dr. Edward Smith, in his valuable work on Cyclical 
Changes in Health and Disease, has collected extensive 
statistics showing the effect of the time of conception on the 
viability of the foetus. The quotation is from Carpenter's 
Human Physiology, p. 753. 

P. 103. See Lancet for March 6, 1869, p. 337, for report of 
discussion in the Pathological Society of London upon the 
physical degeneracy resulting from procreation during intoxi- 
cation. Authorities could be cited at length upon this sub- 



NOTES. 409 

ject^butit is not necessary. See Hufeland's Art of Pro- 
longing Life, p. 207. 

Pp. 106 — 114. Sterility. — For statistics referred to, see 
Dr. Matthews Duncan, Fecundity, Fertility, and Sterility 
(Edinburgh, 1866), p. 181 et seq.j Dr. Tilt, Uterine Thera- 
peutics, p. 291 ; Dr. Edward Reich, Gesundheitslehre des 
Ehelichen Lebens, Th. ii. 

Dr. J. Marion Sims, On the Microscope as an Aid in the 
Diagnosis and Treatment of Sterility, New York Medical 
Journal, January 1869, p. 406 ; Charles Darwin, The Varia- 
tion of Animals and Plants under Domestication, vol. ii. p^ 
198; Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Reporter, November 
2, 1867, p. 384; A. Debay, Hygiene et Physiologie du 
Mariage, p. 288 (Paris, Ouarante-quatrieme edition) ; Raci- 
borski, De la Puberte, etc., p. 451 ; Virey, De la Femme 
sous ses Rapports Phys., etc., p. 332 ; Dr. Gunning S. 
Bedford, The Principles and Practice of Obstetrics,^. 107. 

P. 115. The Limitation of Offspring.— We have taken 
great pains to avoid giving false or dangerous impressions 
in this section. The references in the order of quotation are : 
— Dr. Tilt, Hand-Book of Uterine Therapeutics, p. 317 ; Dr. 
Duncan, Fecundity, Fertility, Sterility, and Allied Topics, 
pp. 289, 290; Dr. Hillier, Diseases of Children, p. 114; John 
Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Econoiny, p. 591 ; Dr. 
Drysdale, London Medical Press and Circular, December, 

1868, p. 478 ; Raciborski, De VAge Critique chez la Femme, 
p. 484 ; The Nation, June 1869 ; Dr. Edward Reich, Natur 
und Gesundheitslehre des Ehelichen Lebens, p. 493 ; Boston 
Medical and Surgical Journal, February 1867; Philadelphia 
Medical and Surgical Reporter, vol. xix. p. 305 ; Sismondi, 
Prificiples of Political Economy, book vii. chap. v. j Dr. 
MacCormac, in London Medical Press and Circular, March 

1869, p. 244; Dr. Gaillard Thomas, Diseases of Women, p. 
58 ; Leavenworth Medical Herald, April, 1867; Dr. N. K. 
Bowling, in The Nashville Journal of Medicine and Su?gery, 
October 1868. We have rather let others speak than spoken 
ourselves, and have collected the opinions of many most 
distinguished physicians and statesmen, who thus pronounce 



410 NOTES. 

against excessive childbearing. Any intelligent physician 
will acknowledge the weight to be assigned to such names. 

P. 128. Signs of Fruitful Conjunction.— Carpenter, 
Human Physiology, p. 772 ; Dr. Gunning S. Bedford, Prin- 
ciples and Practice of Obstetrics, p. 304 ; Menville, vol. i. 
p. 295 ; Montgomery, Signs and Symptoms of Pregnancy ■, 
p. 90. 

P. 132. Inheritance. — Darwin, Animals and Plants 
under Domestication, pp. 42, 473 ; Sir Henry Holland's 
Medical Notes and Reflections, p. 30 ; Pritchard, Researches 
into the Physical History of Mankind, vol. ii. p. 551; Car- 
penter, Hztman Physiology, p. 779 ; A. Debay, Hygiene et 
Physiologic du Mariage, p. 173 ; Fleurens, De la Longevite 
et de la QuantitS de Vie sur le Globe, p. 256 (Paris, i860) ; 
Hufeland, Art of Prolonging Life, pp. 91, 206 ; Hammond's 
Hygiene, p. 116; American Journal of Medical Sciences, 
July, 1865, p. 82 ; Francis Galton, On Hereditary Talent arid 
Character, in Macznillarts Magazine, vol. xii. pp. 157, 318 ; 
Madden, :The Infirmities of Genius, vol. ii. p. 107 ; Lancet, 
December 22, 1868, p. 825; The British Medical Journal, 
January 1 1, 1868, p. 25 ; Dr. Prosper Lucas, Traite de V Here- 
dite Naturelle; Victor Hugo, L Homme qui Rit, le seconde 
chapitre preliminaire ; Watson's Practice, p. 11 53; Dr. 
Daniel G. Brinton, Guide-Book to Florida and the South, 
Pt. iii. ; Dr. J. V. C. Smith, Physical Indicatioiis of Lon- 
gevity in Ma7i. 

P. 163. Plural Births. — Duncan, Fecundity, Fertility, 
and Sterility, p. 69 ; Ramsbotham, System of Obstetrics, p. 
461 ; Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Reporter, vol. xix. 
p. 508, xx. p. 98. 

P. 167. Pregnancy. — Menville, i. p. 299; Dr. Gunning 
S. Bedford, System of Obstetrics, p. 144 et seq.; Montgomery, 
Signs and Symptoms of Pregnancy j Dr. Edward Rigby, 
System of Midwifery, p. 47. 

P. 180. Mothers' Marks. — See a very interesting article 
by Professor Wm. A. Hammond, in The Quarterly Journal 
of Psychological Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence, Janu- 



NOTES. 411 

ary, 1868, p. 1, in which he says, in regard to the influence of 
the maternal mind over the foetus in utero : ' The chances of 
these instances, and others which I have mentioned, being 
due to coincidence, are infinitesimally small ; and though I 
am careful not to reason upon the principle of post hoc ergo 
propter hoc, I cannot — nor cro I think any other person 
can, no matter how logical may be his mind — reason 
fairly against the connection between cause and effect 
in such cases. The correctness of the facts only can be 
questioned : if these be accepted, the probabilities are thou- 
sands of millions to one, that the relation between the phe- 
nomena is correct.' See also Dr. J. Lewis Smith, Diseases 
of Infancy and Childhood, 1869, p. 21 ; Philadelphia Me-dical 
and Surgical Reporter, vol. xix. p. 359. 

Pp. 192-197. Concurrent Pregnancies. — Raciborski, 
De la Puberte, etc., p. 491 ; Dr. Gunning S. Bedford, System 
of Obstetrics, p. 442 ; Diet, des Sciences Medicates, t. L. iii. ; 
Lancet, August, 1856, p. 131 ; Carpenter, Human Physiology, 
p. 779 ; Beck's Elements of Medical Jurisprudence, art. 
' Superfcetation;' Rokitansky, Pathological Anatomy; Phila- 
delphia Medical and Surgical Reporter, May 1, 1869, p. 335. 
— Professor Pancost removed some years since, from the 
cheek of a child some months old, a rudimentary second 
child. 

P. 198. Can the Fcetus Cry in Utero ? — Dr. Bed- 
ford, Obstetrics, p. 264 ; Lancet, January 23, 1869. 

P. 199. Is it a Son or Daughter ? — Philadelphia Medi- 
cal and Surgical Reporter, vol. xvii. p. 495 ; Dr. Franken- 
hauser, in the Monatschrift fiir Geburtskunde j Dr. Packman, 
On Impregnation, Lancet, July 18, 1863. 

P. 202. Gardner Peerage Case.— Dr. Bedford, System 
of Obstetrics, p. 299. 

P. 204. Prolonged Pregnancies. —Taylor, Medical 
Jurisprudence, p. 586 ; Report of Proceedings against the 
Rev. Fergus Jardi?ie (Edinburgh, 1839). 

P. 207. Care of Health during Pregnancy. — 
Churchill, On Women, p. 451 ; Menville, ii. 114 ; Tilt's Ele- 
ments of Health, p. 171. 
35 



412 NOTES. 

P. 236. To have Labor without Pain.— Professor T. 
Gaillard Thomas says, ' The rule should be to employ an 
anaesthetic in every case of labor, during the second stage, 
unless some contra-indication exists. After a delivery, under 
its influence patients recover more rapidly, are freer from 
complications, and show few^r signs of prostration.' See 
Lecture on the Management of Women after Parturition, in 
the Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal, February, 
1869, p. 145. 

P. 238. Weight and Length of new-born Children. 
■ — Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Reporter, vol. xix. p. 
388 ; Carpenter, Human Physiology, p. 810 ; Ramsbotham, 
Obstetrics, p. 1 1 1 ; Detroit Review of Medicine and Phar- 
macy, March, 1869, p. 150. 

P. 271. The Child. — Dr. J. Lewis Smith, A Treatise -on 
the Diseases of Infancy and Childhood, 1869, p. 28 et seq.j 
Dr. Thomas Hillier, Clinical Treatise on the Diseases of 
Children, p. 17; Dr. Edward Smith, Cyclical Changes in 
Health and Disease j Dr. John Marshall, Outlines of Physio- 
logy, Human and Comparative, pp. 761, 765, 998 ; Dr. 
Charles A. Cameron, Lectures on the Preservation of Health, 
1868, p. 174 j Dr. Charles J. B. Williams, Principles of Medi- 
cine, p. 480; Dr. J. Forsyth Meigs, Diseases of Children j 
Dr. E. J. Tilt, Elements of Health and Principles of Female 
Hygiene, p. 50 et seq.j Dr. Andrew Combe, The Manage- 
ment of Infancy, p. 73 et seq. (ninth ed. Edinburgh, i860) ; 
Report of Board of Health of Philadelphia for 1868, p. 43 ; 
British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, April i868 ? 
pp. 382, 454 ; Southern Journal of the Medical Sciences, 
November, 1867, p. 555; Dr. Thomas Hawkes Tanner, Prac- 
tice of Medicine, p. 108 ; Dr. William A. Hammond, Treatise 
on Hygiene, p. % et seq.j Philadelphia Medical and Surgical 
Reporter, vol. xvi. p. 530, xix. pp. 37, 59, 119, *34, 382; 
Edward C. Seaton, M.D., A Hand-Book of Vaccination; 
Professor J. B. Fonssagrives, V Education Physique des 
Fillesj Le Role des meres dans les maladies des Enfantsj 
Sir James Y. Simpson, Selected Obstetrical and Gynaeco- 
logical Works, etc., etc. 



INDEX. 



Abdomen, changes in, during pregnancy 

pain in, during pregnancy- 
Abortion, crime of, how to stop . 

evils of 

Advantages of the games and plays of children 
Advice to wives who desire to have children 
Afterbirth ...... 

Age of husband .... 

nubility .... 

puberty . v . 

Air and ventilation during infancy 
Air space required in bedroom 
Anger, effect of, on the mother's milk 
Appetite, depraved, a sign of pregnancy 
Approaching labor, signs of 
Arrowroot, how to prepare, for children 
Articles wanted for confinement 
Atavism explained 

Attendants during confinement, hints for 
Avoidance of hereditary tendencies 

* Bad-getting-up,' causes of . 

Bandage after confinement, how to make 

how to apply . 
Barrenness, its causes and cure 
Bath, hour of, for infants 

drying of the skin after . 

during pregnancy . 

value of, in infantile diseases 
Beautiful children, how to have 
Beauty, inheritance of . 
Bedroom, size of, for the married 



PAGE 

. 173 

. 355 

' . 122 

. 123 

• 314 

• 113 

. 230 

• 75 

• 5o 
23, 25 

• 307 
. 94 
. 252 

• 175 

. 223 

275, 291 

. 221 

• 133 

. 229 

• I5i 

. 241 

. 221 

. 230 

. 106 

• 303 

• 3°4 
. 212 

• 305 
. 140 

. 135 

. 94 



4H 



INDEX. 



Bed-wetting, causes and cure 

Bed, for married persons 
clothing 

the most healthful 
in confinement, how to ' dress 

Binder, how to make . 

Births, relative proportion of male 

Blondes, age of puberty of . 

Boarding school life, effect of, on girls 

Body, changes in, at puberty 
symbolism of 

Bowel complaints of children 

Boys, more born than girls . 

Braces, abdominal 

Breasts, attention required towards 
changes in, during pregnancy 
first application of child to 
inflammation and abscess of 
management after confinement 

Bringing up by hand 

Brunettes, age of puberty of . 



to female 



the end of 



Care of infancy . 

Carrying an infant, manner of 

Celibacy not chastity . 

results of 
Change of life, regimen and perils of 
Changes, the monthly, precautions during 

precautions in the intervals of 

when delayed. 

painful . 

worked by puberty 
Child, the . 

attention to, at birth 

can it cry before birth ? 

education, of before birth 
Childbearing, excessive. 
Childbed, diseases of . 

mortality of . 
Childbirth, imprudence after. 

preparations for 



pregnancy 



INDEX. 415 

PAGE 

Childbirth, to preserve form after . . ■ . „, . 242 

Children, bathing of . 303 

bed for . . . . . . . . 297 

clothing of . . . . . . . 300 

decreased number of . . . . . 73 

diet for . . . . . . . . . .288 

new-born, weight and length of . . . .238 

three and more at a birth . . .• . . .164 
Children's diseases, home management of ... 325 

Chlorosis 36 

Choice of a husband . . . . . .69 

City life, effect of, on puberty 29, 47 

Cleanliness, curative influence of . . . . . . 378 

importance of, to wives . . . . . — . 131 

Climate, effect of, on puberty 27 

Clothing at puberty . • 43 

at confinement . . '227 

during pregnancy 209 

of new-born infants . 222 

of young children . . . . . . . . 300 

Cold, effect of, on infants 300 

Color of infant, influence of mind of mother on . . .182 

Completion of puberty 32 

Complexion 136 

inheritance of 125 

Conception, is it possible during pregnancy ? . . .192 

nature of s 125 

signs of. . 128 

Confinement, bed for . . ... . . . 226 

day of, how to calculate 206 

dress for - . . . . 227 

hints for attendants~at . 229 

imprudence after ...'..... 240 

preparations for .219 

Constipation of pregnancy 358 

Constitution, effect of the, on puberty 21 

on change of life 398 

Consumption 41, 71, 94, 148, 151 

Continence demanded from husbands 121 

Cough of pregnancy 359 

' Count,' how to make the . 206 

35* 



4i6 



INDEX. 



Country life, effect of, on puberty 

Courtship 

Cousins, shall they marry ? 

Crime of abortion . 

Croup, home treatment of 

Culture of the skin 



Dangers of puberty 
Daughters, influenced by fathers 
Deformities, are they hereditary ? 
Degeneracy, cause of . 

of the human race, a query 
Diet for infants 

children 

the pregnant . % 

Diarrhoea during pregnancy . 

of infants 

Directions for mothers who cannot nurse their 
Dignity and propriety of the sexual instinct 
Disease, communication of . 
Diseases, hereditary .... 

of children, home management of . 

of wives and mothers 
Distinction of the sexes .... 
Divorce, unnatural and improper . 
Dress, attention to, during pregnancy . 

for confinement .... 
Dressing of the new-born child 
Drying up of the milk .... 

Duration of labor 

Dyspepsia of children . 



Ear, the hygiene of, in childhood . 
Education, influence of, over hereditary qua! 

of the child in the womb 

special senses in children 
Emotion, influence of, on unborn child 
Emotions, stimulation of, effects of, on puber 
Engagement, the .... 
Engagements, long 
Epilepsy, a cause of 



PAGE 

29 

65 

69 

122 

325 
306 



274, 



childi 



ities 



ty 



INDEX. 



417 



Eruptions of childhood, how to prevent 
Eternity of love .... 
Exercise at puberty 

during pregnancy . 

of children .... 
Excessive child-bearing . . . 

Eyes, the education of, in childhood 

Falling of the womb 
False labor pains .... 
Fathers, influence of, on daughters' 
Feeding of infants, manner of 
Fertility, hereditary 

laws of .... 

First application of child to breasts 

cares to the child newly born 

mother after childbirth 

labors ..... 

seven years of life . 
Fits of children, home treatment of 
Flat nipples, how to remedy 
Food, during pregnancy 

of infants and children . • 

bill of fare for . . . 

Foreigners, should native women marry 
Form, to preserve after confinement 
Frigidity . . . ... 

Galen, anecdote of 
Games and plays, advantages of . 
Gardner, Lord, the case of . 
Garters, danger of, during pregnancy 
Gathered breasts .... 
Goftr, story of ... . 
Government of children, hints on . 
Green sickness .... 
Growth of children 



Habits, dangers and advantages of 
Hair, its significance 
transmission of 
Hardening of infants, dangerous theories on the 



41 8 INDEX. 

PAGE 

Hearing, the training of, in children . .... 323 

Head colds of children, home treatment of . . . . 329 

Health, care of, during pregnancy . . . . 207 

effect of pregnancy on . . . . . . .216 

in marriage 35 1 

Hereditary diseases . 148 

qualities influenced by education 147 

Hermaphrodite, a true - . . .20 

Hindrances to nursing . 245 

Hints for attendants at confinement . . . . . 229 

Home government, hints on 344 

management of some common children's diseases . . 325 
treatment of female ailments . . . . 377 

Husband, age of 75 

and wife, during pregnancy 216 

shall they occupy same room and bed . . 93 

character of 79 

how to choose 69 

retain the affections of . . . . .130 

Husbands, plurality of 64 

Hygiene of puberty . . . . . . . 41 

the monthly periods 45 

pregnancy 207 

of infancy ... , . . . . . 271 

of the special senses 318 

Hygienic habits, importance of teaching children . . .316 

treatment of inward weakness 377 

Hysterics . . . . . . . . . .38 

Imagination of mother, influence of, on unborn child . .186 

Imprudence after childbirth 240 

Indigestion of childhood ....... 342 

Indulgence and restraint of sexual desire . . 99 

Infancy, care of . . ." 271 

deaths in 272 

Infant, first clothing of 222 

washing of 231 

how to carry 309 

lift 310 

teach to walk 313 

Infants' food 288 



INDEX. 



419 



Inheritance 

how to avoid evil tendencies of 

how to have beautiful children 

influence of education over 
each parent over 

of beauty 

of diseases 

of longevity . 

of mutilations 

of personal qualities 

of physical ,, 

of talent and genius 

of temperament 

late manifestations of 

the effects of . 
Injections 

Injurious exercises for infants 
Intemperance, of several kinds 
Intermarriage of relatives 
Inward weakness . 
Irregularities, causes of 
Irrigations .... 

Knowledge, safety in . 

Labor, cause of . 

duration of . 

dress during . 

false and true 

how to calculate time of 

how to have, without pain 

mortality of . 

signs of approaching 

symptoms of actual 
Late manifestations of the effects of inheritance 
Late marriages, offspring of . 
Length of pregnancy 
Liebig's soup for infants 
Lifting an infant, manner of 
Light, necessity of, for children 
Limitation of offspring 



420 INDEX. 

PAGE 

Long engagements 86 

Longevity, hereditary .138 

Longings in pregnancy . . . . . . .186 

Love, at first sight , 67 

differs from lust . . . . . . • 5^ 

is a necessity 57 

is eternal 60 

its power on humanity . . . ... . .52 

what is it ? . • 54 

Looseness of bowels in children 339 

during pregnancy . .- 357 

Lying-in room, the management of . . . . "~ . 226 

Maiden, the 23 

Manner of feeding infants 291 

Mania, puerperal 362 

Marital relations, times to suspend 103 

when painful . . . . . . .92, 104 

Marriage, age for 50 

health in * . . .' 351 

time of month for 87 

year for ......... 87 

Marriages, second . . • . • . . . .62 

Maternity, duties and privileges of 243 

perils of 352 

Matrimony, necessity of, for happiness 58 

Matron, the happy ........ 243 

Memory, visual, cultivation of, in childhood . . . 320 

Men, as wet-nurses . . Ji . . . .260 

Menstruation explained .24 

Mental impressions, effect of, on hysterics .... 39 

on unborn children 180 

troubles of girlhood . 47 

Milk, mother's, effect of anger on 253 

effect 'of retention in the breasts 249 

influence of diet on 249 

pregnancy on . . . . . 250 

over-abundance of . . . . . . . .258 

scantiness of 259 

quantity required by infant . . . .' . .256 



INDEX. 421 

PAGE 

Milk, when poisonous 2 S 2 

value as food ........ 4 2 

Milk-leg j causes and treatment of . . . • -5^7 

Mind, changes in, at puberty . . . . . • 3 1 

during pregnancy . . . . . . I75> 2I 4 

influence of over conception . . ... . .126 

nursing child 251 

unborn child 182 

Miscarriage . . . , 176 

causes and dangers of 178 

frequency of . 176 

influence of age of mother on 177 

prevention of . 1 79 

symptoms of . . . . . . . . . 180 

Mixture of races by marriage . . . . . • 7 1 

Month, right time of the, to marry . . . . -87 

Monthly changes, precautions in the intervals of . ■ .46 

precautions during. ._*'-.. . . . . . 45 

when delayed . . ... . . . . .48 

when painful ......... 49 

Moon, connection of monthly periods with .... 32 

Morning sickness of pregnancy ..... 169,353 

Mortality of childbed 237 

comparative, of the two sexes in early life . . . 154 

Mortality of infants, causes of , . . . .271 

relative to married life . . . . . • 57 

Mother, the 243' 

diseases of 361 

duties of, towards daughters at puberty . . .44 

influence of, over sons 144 

position in nursing . 225 

who is unable to nurse her child . . . . . 267 

Mothers' marks 180 

Music, influence of • . 99 

Mutilations, are they inheritable ? 149 

Native women, shall they marry foreigners? . . . • . 73 

Near-sightedness, how to prevent 322 

Neck, form of ......... 83 

its significance 84 



422 



INDEX. 



New-born babe, first cares for 

weight and length of 
Night dress of children 

covering of children 

the wedding . 
Nipples, how to harden 
Nose-bleed in childhood 
Nubility, the age of 
Nursing 

care of health during 

diseases of 

hindrances to 

position during 

prolonged 

rules for 

when improper 
Nursing mother, qualities of good 

Offspring, the limitation of . 

influenced by the mind . 
Over-nursing, signs of . 
Overlaying of children, deaths from 
Over-production, evils of 

remedies for . 
Ovulation, the meaning of . 

Painful monthly changes, causes and treatment 
Pains of labor, true and false . 
Painless labors, how to have . 
Parr, Thomas, the long life of 
Pendulous abdomen after confinement, how to escape 
Perils of maternity 
Persons of both sexes, and of neither 
Perspiration, fetid 
Phases, the three, of woman's life 
Piles, during pregnancy 
Plays, the, of children, advantages of 
Plural births 

Plurality of wives or husbands 
Position of child while eating 
of child while sleeping . 



INDEX. 423 

PAGE 

Position of mother while nursing . . . . . .255 

Precautions necessary at the time of the monthly changes . 45 

Precocity, remarkable instances of 25 

Pregnancy . . . . . . . . . .167 

bathing during 212 

care of health during . ... . . . 207 

causes of pi-otracted 205 

can a woman again become pregnant during . . .192 
clothing during ........ 209 

diseases of 352 

double . 192 

effect of, on the health 216 

exercise during . . 2 JO 

food during . . . . . . . . 208 

influence of, on the milk of nursing mother . . . 250 

length of ... 200 

relation of husband and wife during . . . .216 

signs and symptoms of . 168 

sleep during . . . . . . . .213 

ventilation of sleeping-room during .... 212 

Premature marriages ........ 50 

Preparations for confinement . . . . . .219 

Prolific wives 1 15 

Puerperal mania 362 

Qualities transmitted by parents . . . . . .132 

Quantity of milk required by infant 256 

Quickening, as a sign of pregnancy . . . . . 170 
flatulence mistaken for . . . . . . .172 

how caused 171 

time of 171 

Race, the human, is it degenerating ? 348 

Races, mixture of . . . . . . . .71 

Relation of husband and wife during pregnancy . . .216 

nursing . . . 264 

Relative age of man and wife ...... 76 

proportion of men and women living . . . -153 

Religion, mistaken notions of 57 

Rest, after delivery . 241 

during pregnancy 211 

Re-vaccination 2S6 

80 



424 



INDEX. 



Right time of the month to marry 
time of the year to marry 



PAGE 
87 
87 



Schooling, the, of the first seven years of life 
Scrofulous diseases, a cause of 
Second marriages . ... 

Secret bad habits .... 

Self-deceptions regarding pregnancy 
Senses, training of the special, in childhood 
Sex of child, how to predict before birth 
Sexes, distinction of ... . 

laws which determine the relative number 
persons of both and of neither 
production of, at will 
I Sexual desire, indulgence and restraint of 
moderation in . . • 
instinct, dignity and propriety of . 
false notions about 
desire, influence of on offspring 
Sexuality, what it implies 
Sickness, morning, during pregnancy . 
during labor ..... 
Signs of approaching labor 
puberty . . . 

conception ..... 
over-nursing 

pregnancy 

Sight, the training of, in childhood 
Single life, the ..... 
s in its relation to sanity and mortality 
Skin, changes, in, during pregnancy 

culture of, in infancy 
Sleep, amount required in early life 
at puberty 
during pregnancy . 
position in 
Sleeplessness during pregnancy 
Small pox, death rate from . 

the only preventive against 
Son or daughter? . . . 



of 



the 



INDEX. 425 

PAGE 

Sore nipples 246 

JSoup, Liebig's . . . 289 

Sphere of woman . . . . . . . . .21 

Spinal disease . . . . . . . . 36 

Spring-time . . 101 

Spurious labor pains .225 

Stages of labor .• 223 

Starvation of girls 42 

Sterility , . . 106 

how to remedy . .113 

Still-births 240 

Stilling Jung, anecdote of 67 

Stimulation of ihe emotions, dangers of, at puberty . . 29 
St. Pierre, anecdote of . . . . . . . 78 

Sully Raymond, anecdote of . . . . . . .401 

Swimming, benefit of 306 

I Symbolism of the human .body 83 

Syringes, and how to use them 379 

Talent, hereditary 141 

Teething, period of .279 

Temperament, transmission of . . . . 137 

Temperaments, explained .77 

influence of 101 

in marriage -77 

Things wanted during confinement . . . . . 22 1 

Tight-lacing 43, 374 

Time of expected labor, how to calculate it . . . . 206 

of the year to marry ....... 87 

of the month to marry . . . . ... -87 

Times when marital relations should be suspended . . .103 

Toilet, innocent arts of . . 132 

Tour, the wedding . . . . . . . .87 

Toys a mean of infantile education 315 

Twins, how to predict 199 

why born 161 

Twin-bearing . . i6 

' influence of, on size of families ..... 163 
Thury, Prof., discovery of . . * . . .157 

Unborn child, education of 191 

£ £ 



426 INDEX. 

PAGE 
Vaccination, age for ........ 285 

importance of 282 , 

Varicose veins of pregnancy . ...... 355 

Ventilation of sleeping rooms during pregnancy . . .212 
Virgins, wet-nursing by ....... 260 

Voice, change in, at puberty 30 

Wakefulness of pregnancy 360 

Walk, how to teach a child to 313 

Washing of the new-born infant . - 231 

Weakness, inward 368 

Weaning . 277 

Wedding tour, the 87 

night, the 91 

Weight and length of new-born children . . . .238 

Wet-nurse, how to select ...'.... 269 

Wet-nursing by virgins and men ...... 260 

White-flowing ......... 365 

Wives famous in history 59 

plurality of ... 64 

W oman, the three phases in the life of . . . . .22 
physical differences from man . . . . 19 

sphere of . . . . . . . .21 

to be sought 65 

Womb, falling of 368 

Worms of children, home treatment of 335 

Women, diseases peculiar to 352 

treatment of . . ... . . . . 377 

why redundant . . . . . . . .153 

Young wives . -5° 

mothers . . . . . . . . .51 

Year, right time of, to marry 87 

Zurich, curious custom in ....... 93 



TESTIMONIALS 

OF 

EMINENT MEN AND OF THE PRESS 

TO THE 

PHYSICAL LIFE OF WOMAN 

AND ITS AUTHOR. 



Op the very numerotcs testimonials in our hands we select those of 
earlier date in preference, as showing the acumen of the writers and 
the warmth with which they welcomed the book. 

FROM WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M.D., 

Late Surgeon-General of U. S. Army; Professor of Diseases of the Mind and 
Nervous System and of Clinical Medicine in the Bellevue Hospital Medical 
College, New York. 

New York, Aug. '69. 
Dr. Napheys — 

Dear Sir : I have read with much interest and satisfaction your 
very admirable book on " The Physical Life of Woman." I am glad 
that the subject has been taken up by one who shows himself so thor- 
oughly qualified for the task, and I trust the instruction and advice 
contained in the volume will reach every woman in the land. 
Yours, sincerely, 

WILLIAM A. HAMMOND. 



FROM REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER. 

Brooklyn, N. Y., Sept. 1869. 
Dr. Geo. H. Napheys— 

Dear Sir: I have examined your volume. "The Physical Life of 
Woman," and desire to thank you for perfcrming a work so long 
needed, so difficult to perform, and now, at length, so well done by 
you. Every mother should have this book, nor should she suffer a 
child to be married without the knowledge wlik\t this work contains. 



2 

Thousands have dragged through miserable lives and many have per- 
ished for want of such knowledge. It is to be hoped, too, now that 
these delicate topics have been so modestly and plainly treated, that 
your work will supersede the scores of ill-considered and often mis- 
chievous treatises addressed "to the married," which too often serve 
the lasts of men under the pretence of virtue. 

HENRY WART) BEECHER. 



FROM REV. HORACE BTJSHNELL, D.D. 

Hartford, Conn., Sept. 1869. 
Geo. H. Napheys, M.D. — 

Dear Sir : I have read a large part of your book with interest. I 
shrink from expressing any estimate of it as respects its physiological 
merit, but it seems to be a book well studied, and it is written with 
much delicacy and a careful respect, at all points, to the great in- 
terests of morality. It will certainly be a great help to intelligence 
on the subject, and ought, therefore, to be correspondingly useful. 
Very respectfully yours, 

HORACE BUSHNELL. 



FROM HARVEY L. BYRD, M.D. 

>nt of Was 
ad. 

Baltimore, Sept. 1869. 



Professor jof Obstetrics in the Medical Department of Washington University 
of Baltimore, Maryland. 



Dr. Geo. H. Naphets, Philadelphia — 

Dear Sir: I have examined with much pleasure and satisfaction 
your work on " The Physical Life of Woman," and do not hesitate to 
commend it most warmly to our countrywomen, for whose benefit it 
is intended. I congratulate you on the felicitous manner in which 
you have treated so difficult a subject, and would recommend it to the 
public as supplying a want that has long been felt in this country. 

Omne verum utile dietu, and what ean b» more proper or more use- 
ful than that woman should be made acquainted with the great laws 
of her being and the duties for which she was created? 

Very respectfully, your obed : t servant, 

HARVEY L. BYRD. 



EXTRACT FROM LETTER RECEIVED FROM EDWIN M. SNOW, 
M.D., OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND. 

Providence, Sept. 1869. 
Dr. Napheys — 

Dear Sir : I have examined with much interest the advance sheets 
of your book, " The Physical Life of Woman ;" I am highly pleased 
with it. The advice given seems to me to be generally correct, and 
judiciously expressed; and, in my opinion, the wide circulation of the 
book would be a benefit to the community, 
Truly yours, 

EDWIN M. SNOW. 



FROM REV. GEORGE ALEX. CROOKE, D.D., D.C.L. 

Philadelphia, Sept. 1869. 
Dr. Geo. H. Napheys — 

Dear Sir : I have carefully read your work entitled " The Physical 
Life of Woman," and, as the result, I must candidly say that I believe 
the information it contains is well calculated to lessen suffering and 
greatly benefit the human race. I know there are some falsely fasti- 
dious persons who would object to any work of the kind, but "to the 
pure all things are pure." You have done your part fearlessly and 
well, and in a popular manner, and I trust that your work may be 
productive of all the good you design by its publication. 

V^ery faithfully, 

GEO. ALEX. CKOOKE. 



OPINION OF LLOYD P. SMITH, Esq. 

Librarian Philadelphia Library. 

Library Co. op Philadelphia, Fifth St. bel. Chestnut, 
Philadelphia, Sept. 1869. 

It is an open question whether books de secretis midierum should be 
written for the general public ; but there is no doubt that, when they 
are written, it should be clone by the regular faculty, and not by igno- 
rant quacks. Dr. Napheys' "Physical Life of Woman" shows not 
only the scientific attainments of the author, but also a wide range of 
miscellaneous reading. The delicate subjects treated of are handled 
with a seriousness and earnestness becoming their importance, and 
the author's views are expressed in excellent English. 

LLOYD P. SMITH. 



OPINION OF S. W. BUTLER, M.D. 

Editor of the Philadelphia "Medical and Surgical Reporter." 

I have carefully examined " The Physical Life of Woman," and find 
it a work at once thoroughly representing modern science, and emi- 
nently adapted for family instruction. It is well suited to female 
readers, to whom it is especially addressed both in the matter it con- 
tains and in {he delicacy with which points relating to their physio- 
logical life are mentioned. 

S. W. BUTLER. 



EXTRACT FROM LETTER RECEIVED FROM JOHN H. 
GRISCOM, M.D. 

New York, Sept. 1S69. 
Dr. Napheys — 

My Dear Sir: The " Physical Life of Woman" is a very scientific 
and intellectually written work, and contains almost all the physiolo- 
gical and sanitary facts and directions needed for the preservation of 
the health and longevity of the maiden, wife, and mother. It must 
prove attractive and useful for any lady who reads it. 

Your sincere friend, 

JOHN H. GRISCOM. 



FROM THE NATIONAL BAPTIST, PHILA., DEC. SO, 1869. 

"We join in the cordial welcome which this book has received. There 
is no other work which tells so well just what every woman — and every 
considerate man also — ought to know. Maternity is the one great 
function of woman, according to God's, ordinance, and for this mar- 
vellous and holy mission her physical, intellectual, and moral consti- 
tution has been designed. Dr. Napheys, in his wise "Advice to 
maiden, wife, and mother," passes in review the cardinal facts re- 
specting woman's physical life. The boo'k is written in a very clear 
and simple style, so that no one can misunderstand it, while there is 
nothing to disturb or offend the most sensitive. A judicious mother 
would do her maturing daughters great service by first carefully read- 
ing this volume herself, and then have them read it under her gui- 
dance. 



OPINION OF MRS. R. B. GLEASON, M.D. 

Elvira, N. Y., Sept. 1869. 

The advance sheets of "The Physical Life of "Woman" have been 
read with much interest. In this book Dr. Napheys has well met a 
real need of the age. There are many things incident to woman's 
physical organization which she needs to know, and concerning which 
she still does not want to ask a physician, and may not have one at 
hand when she most desires the information. This book can be easily 
read and perfectly understood by those not familiar with medical 
terms. All matters of delicacy are treated with freedom, and "still 
with a purity of thought and expression which is above criticism. 

For many years we have been often asked for just such a book, and 
shall gladly commend it to the many wives and mothers who want for 
themselves and grown-up daughters such a book of helps and hints for 
home life. Mrs. R. B. GLEASON. 



FROM PROFESSOR JOHN S. HART, LL.B. 

State Normal School, Trenton, N. J. 
Geo. H. Napheys, M.B. — 

Dear Sir : I have read with attention the advance sheets of your 
book, "The Physical Life of Woman ;" and take pleasure in saying 
that you have handled a most difficult and important subject with 
equal delicacy and ability. Yours truly, 

JOHN S. HART. 



OPINION OF MARK HOPKINS, D.D., LL.D., 

President of Williams College. 
"four book is conscientiously written, and will be likely to do 
good." 



FROM THE N. Y. EVANGELIST, NOV. 18, 1869. 

This is a plain and practical treatise, prepared by a physician of 
skill and experience, in which he aims to furnish information to 
w.omen, in their peculiar conditions and relations, married and single, 
so as to enable them to preserve their own health, and perform their 
duties to themselves and their children. The most delicate subjects 
are treated in language so chaste as not to offend any pure mind. 



OPINION OF DR. R. SHELTON MACKENZIE. 

Philadelphia, Oct. 1869. 
"Believing that such a work as Dr. Napheys' 'Physical Life of 
Woman,' giving a great deal of valuable information, explicitly and 
delicately, is likely to be of very essential importance to the fair sex, 
I cannot hesitate to express my favorable opinion of its object and 
execution." 



LETTER RECEIVED FROM REV. GEO. BRINGHURST, 

Eector of the P. E. Church of the "Messiah," Philadelphia. 

Philadelphia, Sept. 1869. 
Dr. Geo. H. Napheys — 

My Dear Sir : I have perused with considerable care and pleasure 
the work on the " Physical Life of Woman," and feel no hesitation in 
pronouncing it admirably composed, honest, succinct, refined, and 
worthy the companionship of every lady of this age. I hail its ap- 
pearance with gratitude, and look upon it as a valuable contribution 
to those efforts which are making in various directions to elevate the 
tone of morals of the nineteenth century, and to enable mothers to 
discharge faithfully the duties they owe their children. 
Sincerely yours, 

GEORGE BRINGHURST. 



FROM H. N. EASTMAN, M.D., 

Professor of Practical Medicine in Geneva Medical College. 

Geneva, Sept. 1869. 
Geo. H. Napheys, M.D. — 

Dear Sir: I have just completed a careful reading of your advance 
sheets of " The Physical Life of Woman," and I unhesitatingly pro- 
nounce it an admirable work, and one especially needed at this time. 

The book is written in a chaste, elevated, and vigorous style, is 
replete with instruction indispensable to the welfare and happiness of 
woman, and should be placed in the hands of every mature maiden 
and matron in our land. 

H. N. EASTMAN. 



EDITORIAL FROM PHILADELPHIA MEDICAL AND 
SURGICAL REPORTER. 

It is a singular fact, that in this country, most of the works on 
medical and hygienic matters have been written by irregular practi- 
tioners in order to help on its legs some ism or pathy of their own. 
The public is really desirous of information about the great questions 
of life and health. It buys whatever is offered it, and cannot tell of 
course the tares from the wheat. In fact, as we have said, there has 
been very little wheat offered it. Scientific physicians do not seem to 
have taken the pains in this country, as in Germany, to expand sound 
medical information among the people. 

We therefore welcome all the more warmly a work which, under any 
circumstances, would command our praise, advance sheets of which 
are now before us. The author is Dr. George II. Napheys, of this 



6 

city, well known to all the readers of the " Reporter" as a constant 
contributor to its pages for a number of years, a close student of 
therapeutics, and a pleasing writer. Tbe title of tbe book is "The 
Physical Life of Woman ; advice to the Maiden, Wife, and Mother." 
It is a complete manual of information for women, in their peculiar 
conditions and relations, married and single. 

The style is simple, agreeable, and eminently proper and delicate, 
conspicuously so when treating of such difficult topics to handle in a 
popular book, yet so necessary to be handled, as the marital relations 
of husband and wife, the consummation of marriage, etc. 

We do not doubt that this work will find as large a sale both in and 
out of the profession in this country, as the works of Bock and 
Klencke in Germany, and of Tilt and Chavasse in England. 



FROM THE NASHVILLE JOURNAL OF MEDICINE AKD 
SURGERY FOR NOVEMBER, 1869. 

The outside of this book is more stylish and artistic than any the 
market has owed to the press this season. The type and paper of the 
inside are in keeping with the elegant exterior. The work contains 
much valuable matter, in a style peculiarly attractive. It is intended 
to treat woman as a rational being, to let her know much about her- 
self as a woman, that from this knowledge she may prevent and there- 
fore escape much of the suffering endured by her sex. 

And who can do this but a physician ? This may be regarded as 
the first attempt of the kind in this country. 



FROM THE MEDICAL RECORD, NEW YORK, JAN. 15, 1870. 

Doctor Napheys, in his work on "The Physical Life of Woman," 
has acquitted himself with infinite credit. The subject, which for a 
work of its size takes a very wide range, is treated in choice, nay ele- 
gant language, and we have not noticed a single expression upon the 
most delicate matter that could offend the most refined taste. There 
are, too, a great many interesting historical facts connected with the 
general topic, both in an ethical and physiological point of view, which 
show much discrimination in their production, and a good amount of 
sterling scholarship. To the medical reader there are many points in 
the book that are worthy of attention, prominent among which are 
remarks bearing upon the right of limitation of offspring. We sin- 
cerely hope that, for the real benefit of American women, it may meet 
with a hearty reception, and be productive of great good, in prevent- 
ing many of those disorders now so rife in the community, which are 
Solely the result of ignorance of the ordinary laws of female hygiene. 

No one, however scrupulous, need fear to admit the work within the 
pale of his family circle, and place it, with confidence, in the hands of 
his daughters. 



FROM THE NEW YORK MEDICAL GAZETTE, JAN. 8, 1870. 

Though professedly written for popular instruction, this little book 
will not fail to instruct as well the professional reader. We cordially 
recommend the perusal of Dr. Napheys' book to every woman seeking 
a fuller acquaintance with her physical organism. 



PROM THE BOSTON MEDICAL AND SURGICAL JOURNAL, 

NOV. 25, 1869. 
Most valuable for the perusal of mothers, and of those fathers who' 
may be equal to the task of advising sons liable to commit matrimony. 
The style — of the text — is unexceptionable. Words are not wasted, 
and those used are to the point. The volume is not a mere resume of 
ethers' opinions ; but the author has made the topics of which he 
treats his own. 



FROM THE CHICAGO MEDICAL EXAMINER OF NOV. 1869. 

This work is written in a plain and pleasing style, well calculated 
both to please and instruct. There is nothing of the sensational or 
imaginative character in it. On the contrary, its teachings are in 
strict accordance with scientific facts and good sense. Though de- 
signed specially for females, yet a careful perusal would be productive 
of much benefit to both sexes. 

FROM THE METHODIST HOME JOURNAL, DEC. 4, 1860. 

Hitherto, the subjects so honestly and so skilfully treated in this 
volume have, to a very great extent, been ruled out of the realm of 
popular knowledge, and information of this class sought only in a 
clandestine manner. The people have suffered by deplorable ignorance 
on those topics, which should be as familiar to us as the alphabet. 
Dr. Napheys, by his scientific handling of the physiological points 
which relate to health, training, and development, has rendered a 
great service to the world. This, the press, and public men, have not 
been slow to acknowledge. The book has gained unqualified praise, 
and well deserves it. 



FROM THE PRESBYTERIAN, OF PHILADELPHIA, DEC. 4, '69. 

A book which treats wisely and delicately of very important sub- 
jects, and subjects which ought to be treated by competent hands, 
instead of being left to quacks and the venders of nostrums. Dr. 
Napheys is evidently a conscientious and intelligent physician, and 
his counsels are such as may be put in the hands of all persons need- 
ing such counsels. We commend it for its judicious exposition of the 
laws of nature. 



FROM THE NEW YORK CHRISTIAN UNION, JAN. 8, 1870. 

Society owes a debt of gratitude to this brave and scientific physi- 
cian for the unexceptionable way in which he has performed a work 
that has, up to the publication of this book, been a paramount need, 
not to be satisfied anywhere in the English language. If the volume 
contained only the chapter on the influence of the mother's mind upon 
her unborn child, we would recommend its purchase by every family 
in the United States. 



FROM THE PHILA. EVENING TELEGRAPH, OCT. 6, 1S69. 

This is a work by a physician of reputation on the hygiene of woman, 
designed for popular use, and introducing a variety of topics not gene- 



8 

rally discussed outside of regular scientific medicnl works. Dr. Napheys 
writes with dignity and earnestness, and there is not a chapter in hi3 
book that may not be read by persons of both sexes. Of course such 
a work as this is intended for men and women of mature years, and 
it is not suitable to be left lying about for the gratification of idle 
curiosity. The author hns been careful to write nothing that can pos- 
sibly give offence, and he conveys much sound instruction that, if 
heeded by those to whom it is particularly addressed, will save much 
suffering. 



FROM THE INDEPENDENT, NEW YORK, NOV. 11, 1869. 

It required a brave but sensitively pure man to provide for the want 
which existed for some reliable medical instruction upon points which 
every woman and every married man ought to know, and few do. Dr. 
Napheys we do not know personally. But his book is at once brave 
and pure. It is written in such a spirit that she who really desires to 
learn the truths of which she cannot with justice to herself or others 
be ignorant, may do so without being shocked ; while he who hopes 
to stimulate a vicious imagination by its perusal will turn from its 
pages disappointed away. 



FROM REV. HENRY CLAY TRUMBULL, 

^ssions of the Amer 

Hartford, Ct., Oct. 1869. 



Secretary of New England Department of Missions of the American Sunday- 
school Union. 



Geo. H. Napheys, M.D. — 

My Dear Sir: Understanding, from my long acquaintance with 
you, your thoroughness of mental culture, your delicacy of sentiment, 
and your sound good sense, I was prepared to approve heartily the 
tone and style of your new work, "The Physical Life of Woman," 
when its advance sheets were first placed in my hands. 

A close examination of it convinces me that it is a book which can 
be read by every woman to her instruction and advantage. Its man- 
ner is unexceptionable. Its style is remarkably simple. Its substance 
evidenced your professional knowledge and your extensive study. I 
believe it needs only to be brought to notice to commend itself widely. 
I think you have done an excellent work in its preparation. 
Siucerely your friend, 

H. CLAY TRUMBULL. 



FROM THE REV. W. H. H. MURRAY, 

Pastor of the Park Street Chureh, Boston, Mass. 

Dec. 2, 1871. 
It is with sincere gratitude to the author that I give my endorse- 
ment to the book entitled "The Physical Life of Woman." Never 
was such a work more needed anywhere, or in any age, than it is in 
America at this time. I should rejoice at its introduction among the 
people until every wife and mother in the country and the world had 
a copy in her possession. In it the author has indeed given needed 
instruction and warning. He deserves the thanks of every Christian 
and well-wisher of the race. 

W. H. H. MURRAY. 



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